It Was Always You
by WitchyWoman63
Summary: Violet and her parents move back to Mystic Falls after being gone for a while and it's not the same place it was when they left. Though that boy she had a crush on all those years ago is still on her mind. Jeremy/OFC, Elena/Stefan, Elena/Damon, Damon/OFC, Caroline/Tyler, Jeremy/Bonnie
1. Chapter 1

I used to live in Mystic Falls when I was a kid. It's been years since I'd been back. And from the rumors I was hearing about the place, I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to return. But since my parents decided to move back I had no other choice.

The problem was at the time we were moving I technically wasn't 18 yet and I was still considered a minor. So I had to follow my parents regardless of how I felt about the place.

"Why Mystic Falls? That place always gave me the creeps!" I whined

"Because your father got his old job back and that's how we're going to pay for your schooling. Not everyone gets a free ride, you're lucky your father is working in the Science department at the college!" my mother replied.

So...here we are again, living in Mystic Falls. In the same house I grew up in. Talk about awkward…and even creepier now that the last people who lived here were apparently murdered here. No one wanted to buy the place afterwards so my parents got a good deal on it.

"Violet" my mother called from the kitchen. I put down the clothes I was working on putting away and went down to see what she needed.

"Yeah ma?"

"Elena Gilbert called…she said she wants to see you."

"Why did she call your phone?" I was confused.

"She said she tried yours and you weren't answering."

Elena Gilbert….one of my friends from childhood. Actually, I was more friendly with her brother and she used to babysit us, but she was still nice to me and would always include me in everything. I guess she felt bad that I had no siblings. We lost touch once I moved away so at this point I really know nothing about her, aside from her parents dying a few years back. My family sent a card and I called when it happened, but it was so awkward and neither one of us made good on our promise to keep in touch since.

I wasn't sure how to respond. "Do you have her number? Her old place burned down so I'm not sure where she's living now."

"Oh yes! She's living a the Salvatore Boarding house. And I wrote the number down on the pad on the fridge over there. You should give her a call! You need some friends around here."

"Ma I don't even know her anymore. I can make new friends once I start my classes, I'm not really that worried."

"Come on, it'll do you good. You need to get out and enjoy the town. Your father and I loved it here. I'm so happy we came back!"

Rolling my eyes I grabbed the paper and went back upstairs and dialed the number.

"Salvatore residence….Damon speaking, how may I make your day more pleasurable?"

"Damon what the hell is wrong with you? Give me my phone!" a female voice on the other ended, sounded like Elena but I wasn't sure.

"Uhhh…..is Elena there?" I asked

"Sure …..may I ask who's calling?

"Violet…..Vi Peyton. She called earlier and left a message with my mother."

"Violet, eh? That's quite the exotic name….haven't heard of someone with that name in probably a hundred years or so….."

"Damon!" that voice again through the other end of the phone.

"Here she is…"

"Hello?" Yep….definitely Elena. I still could recognize her voice

"Elena? Elena it's Violet…..my mom said you called earlier."

"Vi! How are you? It's been so long!"

"I'm doing alright." I responded…not knowing really what else to say "How are you?"

"I'm…..I'm good! Listen, I know you're taking classes at the college. My friends and I will be taking classes there this semester, as well! We really should get together and catch up. I miss you and I'd love to pick up where we left off."

"Uhm, sure. I have to finish unpacking today but I can meet up with you tomorrow."

"That's great! There's this place downtown called The Grill, do you remember it?"

"Yes I remember it…." the only place the town really had as a "hang out" spot for teenagers and adults alike. It was a small town….not much else to do.

"Do you want to meet there? Say around 1:00? We can have lunch and chat."

"Sure that sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow Elena."

"Great! Can't wait! See you then!"

I hung up the phone and didn't realize until I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror that I was actually smiling. The first time since this move was even mentioned. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad….I mean we were friends before, she was always nice to me, and my mother was right I need friends here.

The rest of the night I finished unpacking all the while my mother gushed about how much she missed the place and how excited she was to catch up with old friends. It was slightly annoying but I zoned out after dinner and was so exhausted from everything that I passed out by 8pm, hopeful that tomorrow would be a good day.


	2. Chapter 2

The day went by quickly and I was actually a little anxious to meet up with her. What if she changed? I know I had. I was so geeky and awkward as a kid….ok, so maybe I hadn't changed that much. But at least I finally grew into my body instead of being the tall, lanky kid.

Elena always had that round face of hers, it didn't exactly make her look chubby but it made her face look younger, even than me at times. And then there was Jeremy. I swear he was my first crush, although I'd never tell him back then. I was more of a tomboy and I'm sure he saw me as just another one of the boys.

I'd taken the beater, my parents old car that they gave to me for graduation(Thanks guys! When I said I wanted a car, I was thinking more along the lines of a Malibu but I guess I'll just drive the Buick until it runs into the ground!) to The Grill and walked in the front. The place was just as I remembered. Smelled like smoke, was so dark you couldn't really see much, and had bad music playing in the background.

I looked around a few times and didn't see anyone I recognized. Great….what if this was just a joke? Haha the new girl in town is an idiot let's all go watch and see how she….

"Vi? Vi is that you?" I turned to see Elena smiling at me.

"Elena? Oh my god you look exactly the same!" she came towards me and gave me a big hug.

"You don't at all." she laughed "Oh…I don't mean that in a bad way! I mean…well….I"

"It's ok I know what you mean" I smiled. I wasn't exactly the cutest kid when I was younger

She laughed and we sat down at a table together. We ordered food and made small chit chat. It did seem awkward at first but then we started getting into a good flow once we started talking about classes. We were just talking about how we might try and get a few classes together when our food came.

"Thanks Jer. Hey….you remember Vi, right?"

I looked up and saw him….except holy hell, did he grow up. Tall, muscles, tan, and a smile that…..

"Oh yeah, hey Vi! How've you been? Wow it's been a while, hasn't it?" and he just kept smiling.

"Uhh yeah. I've been pretty good, you know. How about you?" I was mumbling, hopefully he understood what the hell I was saying.

"Good. Good! You know….working at The Grill, going to school…..nothing really exciting."

"Yeah well, that's life in Mystic Falls, right?" Elena responded.

"Well it was good seeing you. Hope I see more of you." he smiled and walked away.

Was he flirting? Or was I just taking it that way? We'd been friends, maybe that's all he meant? Best to just forget about it anyway.

"Wow Jeremy grew up. I remember when he was barely taller than me." I joked to Elena.

"Yeah he's a good kid. He had it a little rough when our parents died but he's turned around and he's a great guy now."

"Well good I'm glad he's gotten himself straightened out.

We chatted for a good half hour before we were interrupted again, and quite rudely actually.

"Elena! Won't you introduce me to your gorgeous friend here?" a young guy slid his way into the booth next to Elena and almost snuggled up right next to her. If he weren't so creepy he'd actually be pretty damn attractive.

"Ugh hands off" she told him as she elbowed him in the ribs. "Vi, this is Damon. Damon, this is my old friend Violet. She used to live here years ago, her and her family have just moved back."

"Violet" he grabbed my hand and kissed it "It's such a pleasure to meet you. I hope we'll be seeing you around quite often." at least this time I knew it was blatant flirting.

"Ok Damon. You can leave now. I'm sure there's a bottle of Jack at the bar calling to you" Elena gave him a death glare.

"Elena I'm hurt. You don't want me here? Aren't we friends?" he feigned a hurtful look.

"No, we're not friends. Now leave."

He finally left and sauntered on over towards the bar where Jeremy was at. They began chatting but it didn't look like Jeremy was too fond of him, either. More like just tolerating him considering he was a paying customer.

"So….is that guy friends with Jeremy?"

"Damon? Friends with Jeremy? Noooo. Hell no. Those two can barely stand each other. No…he's kind of the brother of the guy I'm dating, Stefan.

"Ah, I see. And everyone sort of just tolerates him?"

"Yeah" she laughed "That's a nice way of putting it."

All in all we were at The Grill for an hour and a half talking. It turned from awkward small talk to actual conversation. It was nice to catch up, I realized how much I really did miss her. All the while stealing glances over towards Jeremy. He caught me one time, and just smiled and waved towards me.

I got home by 3:00 and my mom was in the living room reading a magazine.

"Hey sweetheart, how'd it go? Did you two catch up?"

"Yeah ma, it was nice. Thanks for giving me the push to go. You know, Elena looks the same as she did when we were kids! It's crazy." I smiled and sat down next to her. "Jeremy though, he grew up."

"I remember when you had the biggest crush on him when you were little. It was so cute. You two were such good friends."

"Yeah well…..we're all grown up and I've moved on now." I tried changing the subject.

"Did you meet any of her other friends?" she asked me.

"Just one. Well….I don't think he was exactly her friend. This guy Damon came into the restaurant. He's brothers with the guy Elena is seeing, Stefan.

"Salvatore?" My mom questioned.

"Uhh yeah, how'd you know?" I was curious.

"Oh we grew up with a Salvatore and he talked about his nephews Damon and Stefan. I think his name was Zach. Always thought it was strange that he had nephews when he was so young, himself. He made it seem like Stefan was the sweet one and Damon was the bad one. I felt kind of bad…they must have just been kids. He didn't seem to care for Damon much."

"Huh….well, he doesn't seem like he grew up to be a great guy so maybe that Zach was onto something." I replied. "Where's dad, at work?" I asked.

"Yeah he'll be home by dinnertime. Are you going to see Elena again?"

"Yes, actually she invited me to a party at the Boarding House tomorrow night. I guess her and Jeremy are staying there since their house burned down."

"That'll be nice! You just make sure you don't do anything stupid. You know I don't approve of underage drinking. And call me if anything happens and you do decide to do something stupid, ok?"

"Yes mother you know I will." Even though my mom drove me nuts, I still loved her. She really was my best friend and we talked about almost everything. For some reason I couldn't bring myself to talk to her about how I still apparently had feelings for Jeremy. It could be nothing, and he probably still doesn't feel that way about me. Maybe in a few weeks I'd tell her about it if I still was feeling that way. Right now I just wanted to go relax in my room. "I'm gonna go upstairs and relax. I'm kind of tired. Call me down when dinner's ready?"

"Sure honey. Love you."

"Love you too, mom."


	3. Chapter 3

Here's where that first M rating comes into play...

Chapter 3

The next morning I woke up in a good mood. Something different from the past few months. Maybe living here wouldn't be so bad. At least I already knew some people here, I wouldn't have to completely start over again.

Dinner had went well the night before. My father came home and we laughed and he told us stories about his new job and how excited he was. Yeah, this move wasn't going to be so bad. I was feeling it.

My phone rang late in the afternoon and I didn't recognize the number. Generally I didn't answer if I didn't know but I answered it anyway.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hi….Vi? It's Jeremy. Elena gave me your number, I hope you don't mind."

My heart skipped a beat. "No I don't mind! What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you were coming to the party tonight? Was hoping we could do a little catching up if you were there."

"Yeah I'll be there. Elena's picking me up around 8:00." I told him.

"Great! I can't wait to see you! I can introduce you to some of my friends too you'll probably remember some of them like Matt and Caroline and….well Tyler, I'm sure you remember Tyler. He really hasn't changed much but we can just ignore him if he gets too drunk." he laughed.

"Alright, sounds good. I'll see you tonight Jer."

"Ok Vi. See you later."

That whole conversation had my mind reeling. He couldn't wait to see me? The feelings were definitely mutual on my end. Normally I'd call up a girlfriend and gab for hours about it. But all of my friends were already off to college and I wasn't exactly going to call Elena up and gush about her brother. Talk about weird.

I helped my mom clean up the house until dinnertime and then I started getting ready for the party. Mom was helping me pick out an outfit to wear.

"So….you want something that'll get attention but nothing too revealing…..don't want anyone thinking you're easy!"

"Mom!" seriously….who talks to their daughter like that? Well…she did.

"Here, this will look great on you." she fished out a tight fitted red off the shoulder top from my closet. "Put some gray jeans on and wear some heels and you'll look great!" I had to hand it to her, it looked great. She always knew how to dress.

"Hey kiddo" my dad knocked on my door "Just wanted to see you before you went off to your party."

"Sure dad. Come in."

"My little girl…..so grown up. I hope you have a good time tonight. Call us if you need anything. Your mom and I are going to be here spending time together." he gave me a kiss on the forehead.

"You know I will"

The doorbell rang.

"That must be Elena. Ok I've gotta go! I should be home….uhh….."

"Not too late, please. I'll worry all night." my mother hugged me.

"Ok I won't. I'll text you and let you know I'm still alive" I laughed.

I ran down the stairs and opened the door and sure enough, it was Elena.

"Wow…you look great! She replied once she saw me.

"Thanks! So do you!"

"Thanks! Now let's get going we don't want to be late!"

We both walked to the car and didn't say much. We started driving away and I broke the awkward silence. "Promise me you won't leave me at this party. I'm not going to know anyone there!"

Elena laughed "Don't worry I won't. Besides, you remember Caroline Forbes. She went to school with us."

"Yeah we weren't exactly in the same group of friends, Elena."

"Well don't worry about it. She's changed, and for the good!"

"Well that's nice. Hey….what about Vicky Donovan? She was in the class that Jeremy and I were in together. Will she be there? It'll be nice to see another familiar face." I asked.

"Ohh…uhm. I guess you haven't heard." the smile from just a few moments ago had quickly disappeared.

"Heard what? Did she move?" I asked.

"No uhh…Vicky passed away last year."

"Oh….wow. I'm sorry. I didn't know. How did it happen?" I was shocked. I hadn't known, I hadn't even thought about her in years. I felt kind of bad for even asking at this point.

"It was an accident. Her brother Matt will be there, do you remember him?" she was trying to change the subject, probably too much for her to talk about.

"Yeah I remember him. He was always a really nice guy."

The rest of the car ride was filled with small talk and her trying to explain to me who would be there and me not really remembering everything but just nodding anyway so I didn't seem rude.

It only took us 10 minutes to get from my house to the Boarding house. There were already a ton of cars parked in the driveway and on the street coming up to the house. It was a pretty big house. I had only seen it once before when I lived in Mystic Falls, and it was on the way out of town as we left.

"Wow this place is huge!" I exclaimed as I got out of the car.

"Yeah it is. And it's filled with a bunch of old junk that they try to pass as decorations. Just pretend you like it."

I laughed at her as we started walking up to the house.

"Elena…..nice to see you've brought your little friend again." the guy from the Grill was standing in the doorway.

"Ugh, speaking of old junk…." Elena muttered.

I didn't quite get the joke, so I just ignored it. "Damon, is it? Nice to see you again too." I tried being polite, although he did kind of annoy the hell out of me just by looking at him. He was one of those guys who knew he was attractive and probably figured he could get any woman he wanted. So….not even my type at all.  
"Oh that's sweet, you remember me! I must have made a lasting impression. And you're name is…..wait…I think I remember…..Violet, right?" he smirked.

"Yep that's me." I responded.

"Ok Damon. Move along, we just want to get inside and see everyone." Elena pushed passed him.

"Calm down Gilbert, I'm just the welcome committee." he shuffled aside and let us through the door.

Well Elena was right….it was filled with a lot of old junk passed off as decorations. But hey….not my house, so I didn't really care. I was too busy scanning the crowd for the only other person I knew there, Jeremy. So far I hadn't seen him in the first few minutes.

Elena already had a few people come up to her to say hello. She was talking with them for a few moments and then I heard "Vi…..Vi hey! Come back to us!"

"Oh…sorry. I was just looking for….err….someone I might know."

"Well this here is Caroline Forbes." the blonde next to her smiled and held out her hand.

"Hi! I know you probably don't remember me but it's nice to see you again! Any friend of Elena's is a friend of mine! Except Damon…but that's besides the point." she smiled and I shook her hand.

"And this here" Elena put her hand on the shoulder of the girl next to her with short dark hair and big brown eyes "Is Bonnie Bennett."

"Hi Vi, Elena's told me a lot about you. It's nice to finally put a face to the name." Bonnie shook my hand.

"It's nice to meet you both!" I replied to them.

"Did you want a drink?" Caroline asked.

"Sure, that'd be great." I responded.

"Let's go get one together." she replied. This might not be so bad. Caroline certainly wasn't the same person I knew when I was in school with her. She was stuck up and snobby and now…she seemed really sweet.

We walked over to the bar area and she asked what I liked "Anything fruity that will kill the taste of alcohol" I told her and she laughed and handed me some sort of pink concoction.

"Thank you." I said as I took a sip. Not bad, can't really taste much alcohol at all. Better be careful with that, it could be bad in the end.

"Starting the party a little early, aren't we?" I turned to see Jeremy standing behind me.

"Jeremy hey!" I smiled.

He came in for a huge hug and held me there for a minute "I was hoping you wouldn't chicken out! I'm so glad you're here!" he pulled away and smiled back at me.

"You know I never back down from a challenge." I joked.

"Yeah you haven't changed much. Except you got taller and you're pretty damn cute now."

"How dare you!" I feigned shock "I was always cute! You just refused to notice."

"You were cute for a kid I guess….." he replied.

"And what kind of cute am I now?" I asked…hoping for the response I wanted.

"Well I see you two have caught right back up from where you left off." Caroline interrupted before Jeremy could answer. "I'm going to go and mingle. I'll see you later, ok? If you need anything just come find me." she yelled out as she walked away.

I turned back to where Elena had been standing with Bonnie and didn't see her.

"Great." I mumbled.

"What?" Jeremy asked.

"Oh….nothing." I responded. Hopefully I'd find her sometime during the party and make sure I stay close by. "So Jer, what's new with you?" I tried making small talk.

"Not much. Just school and working at the Grill."

"Are you excited about going to the same college as Elena? Or are you worried she'll crush your game while you're there?" I smirked.

"Nah I'm not worried about that. " he said.

We stood there for a few minutes without saying much, just sipping our drinks and watching the party happen around us.

"Hey let me introduce you to some people, ok?"

"Sure" I followed him through the crowd.

He stopped at the pool table that was in the corner of the room.

"This here is my buddy Matt. Matt say hi to Violet…she used to live here, she was in the same grade as Vicky and I."

The blonde guy on the far end of the table looked up from his pool stick. "Hey Violet It's good to see you again. Hope you're having a good time." he smiled. Matt certainly got a lot cuter also. Blonde hair and blue blue eyes.

"And this guy on the other side here is Stefan, Elena's boyfriend. I'm sure she's told you all about him."

"Hi Violet, it's nice to meet you. Elena's been so excited that you're back. I hope no one here has scared you away yet." he smiled and shook my hand.

"Well I think your brother tried but I don't scare that easily" I smiled back.

He laughed at the joke and replied "Yeah Damon's a lot of talk, don't let him get to you. Most of us just try to ignore him as best as we can."

We stood there chatting away with the two guys while they played pool. I was still scanning the room for Elena or even Caroline but there were so many people it was hard to tell who was who at this point.

"Well someone's drink is empty!" I heard a voice behind me "Someone get this girl here another drink!" and he took the empty cup out of my hand.

"That there is Tyler." Jeremy explained "Another one we just sort of tolerate most of the time."

"Shut it, Gilbert. You know you all love me." Tyler replied.

"Ahh, here we are. Another drink for you, my lady." he handed me another pink drink. "I don't think I got your name."

"I'm Violet, a friend of Elena and Jeremy's. I went to school with all of you." of course most of them wouldn't remember me.

"Wait…..Violet? Not the same Violet with red frizzy hair and freckles?" he looked confused.

"Yep, the same."

"Wow….you…..uhh…"

"I THINK what Tyler is trying to say is, you grew up pretty nicely." Jeremy responded.

"Yeah, yeah that's exactly what I was trying to say." Tyler was getting closer.

I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Where the hell was Elena? I told her not to leave me at this party alone. Who does that anyway?

"Uhhh Jeremy…..I think I'm gonna go find Caroline, ok?"

"Yeah sure. I think I saw her by the front door. Want me to go with you?"

"No that's ok I'll be fine." I just wanted to get away.

I headed towards the front door but then I veered left and up the stairs. I needed to find a bathroom or a bedroom or something where I could just relax for a few minutes. I shouldn't have come to this party where I barely knew anyone.

I walked past a few closed doors and then found one that was ajar. I went in and closed the door behind me, hoping no one would come looking for me.

I looked around for a few minutes. I have been known to be a somewhat nosey person so I walked around the room looking at everything and finally coming up on a picture frame. It was Elena and Jeremy and their parents. On the stand next to it was a notebook with a ton of drawings on the front cover. How ironic that I found Jeremy's room out of all the ones I walked by.

I set my drink on the stand and sat on the bed and pulled out my phone. It had been a few hours already and I sent my mother a text letting her know I was fine and added that I was "having so much fun!" ….I didn't want her to know I was bored out of my mind.

I was too busy looking down at my phone to notice the door had opened.

"Hey there."

I jumped at the sound of Jeremy's voice.

"Sorry…I didn't mean to scare you." he laughed "I saw you come up here. Not having much fun, are you?"

"Parties aren't exactly my thing. Although these drinks are pretty wicked. What the hell is in these things? Two of them and I'm already buzzed."

"I'm not sure….probably a lot of vodka." he responded while sitting on the bed next to me.

"Hey….do you remember that one summer when I had a sleepover and you were the only girl I invited? I didn't even think twice about it until Elena mentioned it."

"Yeah that was awkward. Thank god for her coming and saving the day, eh?" I laughed and kicked my feet up onto the bed.

"This past year has been…really crazy. It's nice to have someone just…..normal around, you know?"

"I'm not sure 'normal' is the best word for me," I joked.

"No you're definitely normal…and sweet."

"You don't get a lot of normal, sweet girls here in Mystic Falls?" I asked.

"Definitely not." he replied

His hand suddenly went for my hair and started twirling it around his finger.

"Uhm…Jeremy, are you feeling ok?" I was assuming at this point he was a little buzzed, himself.

"Yeah…sorry." he jerked his hand away.

For a few minutes there was just awkward silence between the two of us while we sat on the bed next to each other. This night was turning out to be even more strange than I originally thought. Forget not knowing anyone, I didn't think I'd be sitting in bed with the only other person I knew…..who still gave me butterflies in my stomach to this day.

I should have left. I should have just gotten up and walked out of the door and mumbled something about needing to get home before it's too late. But my body didn't seem to want to listen to my brain and so I still sat there on the bed.

"Violet?" I turned to see Jeremy staring at me with a look on his face I've never seen before.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Do you think…." he trailed off, and then suddenly came forward and kissed me. It was an intense kiss I was not expecting at all, but between my hormones racing and the alcohol I reciprocated the kiss.

He pushed me back on the bed and crawled on top of me while continuing to kiss me. It was all happening so fast my head was spinning and I wasn't about to stop.

But then Jeremy sat back up with an alert look on his face "I'm sorry…I'm sorry we shouldn't….I don't know what the hell is wrong with me." he began to look worried.

"Jeremy….no hey, look. It's ok….it's fine. Can we just….." I didn't even finish my sentence, I reached up and grabbed him by the neck and pulled him back down on top of me and kissed him.

Things were getting heavy and clothes started to come off. For a brief moment I thought what would happen if someone came in but at this point I didn't care.

He seemed like he was so hungry for it and I couldn't help myself.

Suddenly we were both naked and out of breath and he looked right at me.

"Are you sure? Is this ok?" he was nervous and shaking and at this point I could tell he was definitely a little buzzed from the alcohol.

"Yeah…it's fine. I swear." it was more than fine.

He entered me at a slow pace, not wanting to hurt me. It felt so amazing and I just needed more.

"Please Jeremy!" I pleaded, urging him to move, go faster, ANYTHING.

He seemed to finally relax and snapped his hips forward, and I moaned into his lips as he continued to kiss me.

His hands were all over me and with every thrust he'd make I'd meet his and it felt amazing.

I knew I wasn't keeping quiet at all, I couldn't even focus on anything but Jeremy and how amazing everything felt. My pleas and moans seemed to only entice him even more and he wrapped his arm around my waist, his thrusts even deeper than before.

He grunted with every thrust, telling me how "beautiful" and "perfect" I was.

I could tell he wasn't going to last much longer, and neither was I. A few more thrusts and I came, yelling out his name as his lips made their way down my breasts, kissing them as I rode out my orgasm.

Soon after he buried his face in my chest and moaned as he reached his orgasm.

Panting and gasping for air, he collapsed on top of me and we laid there for what seemed like forever.  
After finally catching my breath, I was the first one to speak. "Wow." was all I could manage. I mean…I really was not planning on coming to this party to have sex with Jeremy. Ok MAYBE in the back of my mind the thought had come across once, but I didn't actually think it was going to happen.

"Yeah…that's how I'd sum it up, too." he laughed and rolled over onto his back.

I sat and stared at him for a few minutes, drinking in the sight of him. He was gorgeous. Who would have thought that gangly boy from when we were young would grow up to look like this?

"Listen" I broke the silence "I really should get going. My parents will probably start to worry."

"Oh I see, so it's just wham, bam, thank you ma'am and you leave me?" he was beaming.

"Well if you want more where that came from…." I winked at him.

He had a strange look on his face for a split second, almost as if he was sorry about what happened, but it went away just as quick as it came and he was smiling again.

"Alright. Do you want me to take you home?" he asked.

"Nah, I'll be ok. I'll find Elena, she promised she'd drive me home anyway."

We both got dressed and headed downstairs together.

"You sure you'll be able to find her?" he asked me, yelling over the music that was blasting. Was it louder than before? It seemed like it. Or maybe it was just me.

"Yeah I'll be fine. I'm sure someone knows where she is!" and with that we hugged and parted ways.

Of course no one knew where Elena was. Not Caroline, not Bonnie, and not Matt. I couldn't seem to find Stefan or….even Damon. And by this point it seemed like Jeremy had disappeared as well. I saw Tyler off to the corner talking to some guys but I wasn't nearly that desperate.

"Looking for someone? Me, perhaps?" I whirled around and saw Damon standing there. Funny….I hadn't seem him a second ago.

"Where'd you come from?" I asked.

"Oh you'd be surprised at how quickly I can move from place to place." he had that smirk on his face that just made you want to slap him.

"Yeah, actually I'm looking for Elena. She is supposed to give me a ride home." I told him.

"Elena's not going anywhere tonight. She's upstairs with Stefan and I don't think they want to be disturbed anytime soon."

"Great" I muttered. Now what the hell was I supposed to do? I guess I could call a cab.

"Hey, you know what? I'll drive you home." finally he stopped smirking at me.

"No…really, that's ok. I'll call a cab or something."

"You call a cab and they'll for sure call the cops and bust everyone for underage drinking. And it's dark out, you shouldn't walk home alone. Come on I'll take you. Don't worry, I won't bite you." he winked at me.

My mother always warned me about getting into cars with strange men. But I really didn't think Damon would ACTUALLY try anything. It's not like I had much of a choice, anyway.

"Fine." I replied

I was hoping for a silent ride home but apparently that was asking far too much.

"Soooooo…Violet. How'd you enjoy your first Mystic Falls party? I hope it lived up to your expectations. No one got killed, which is always a plus." he laughed.

"It was nice. I enjoyed myself." I kept looking out the window hoping he'd get the hint that I just didn't want to talk.

"I bet you did." I heard him mutter.

"What?" I asked "What did you say?"

"Oh…nothing. Hey, I'm sorry you got ditched. I've gotta warn you though, Elena's kind of like that sometimes."

"That's just great. I guess I'll just make sure to drive myself to and from future events then." Not gonna lie, I was a bit pissed. I told her not to leave me by myself...she KNEW I didn't really know anyone there...and she goes off to have sex with her boyfriend and forgets all about me. And her boyfriends creeptastic brother is the one to give me a ride home. I should have just went and looked for Jeremy.

"Yeah that's probably a good idea. The cab drivers around here are pretty shady too, I wouldn't want anyone having to deal with them. But look...if it happens again, I'll give you a ride home it's no big deal." He actually seemed...kind of sweet for a minute.

"Well...thanks. I do appreciate it."

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I was hoping we could stay that way for the rest of the ride...I was still pissed and tired and a little buzzed and just not in the mood. Of course Damon wasn't having any of that.

"So...how do you like it here so far? People nice to you?" he asked.

"Uhh...it's fine, I guess. The town is still just as pretty as I remembered. The people are nice...although Tyler creeps me out a bit." I laughed.

"Yeah keep those instincts of yours on high alert. He is a creep, you should stay away from him. I've been trying to tell Caroline that for a while now."

"Wait...are Tyler and Caroline dating?" I asked. They didn't seem like two people who would even bother with each other let alone date!

"Yeah off and on for a while. I know...so not each other's type. Although, you know who's an even weirder couple? Bonnie and Jeremy. How in the world they came to be together is beyond me. Elena didn't even know for the longest time. Her best friend and brother are hooking up and she was oblivious." He was smiling while telling his story...but my heart sank.

"Wait...Bonnie and Jeremy are...but I thought?" wait...did I just sleep with Jeremy...while he was dating Bonnie? Why didn't he say anything?

"Yeah but I think they're on a break. They're another pair who are on and off constantly. They were upstairs fighting just before we left. You wouldn't know why, would you?"

Yep I knew why. Because I'm an asshole. Well no...technically Jeremy was the asshole...how could he have not told me about them? Just what I need too...Bonnie pissed at me and I hardly even knew her. I would definitely be having a conversation with Jeremy tomorrow.

"No I don't know. I talked with him earlier but he didn't even mention Bonnie to me." I tried hiding my voice as it cracked. I held back the tears too, he certainly didn't need to know what had happened.

"Well here we are, M'lady. You're home. I hope you enjoyed your ride...and remember it's always great to tip your driver!" he winked at me.

"Jesus Christ..." I muttered...I did crack a smile at him.

As I turned to the door to open it, I looked up to my house and noticed something.

"Hey...does that door look open to you?" I asked.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Strange...my parents never did that. Maybe they thought this was a safer town than our last place?

"Yeah...you know what...let me walk you to your door just to be safe." his voice was completely serious now.

We got out of the car and began walking up the steps. Damon's eyes darted all over the place, checking to see if anyone was around or for anything suspicious.

"Honestly...they're probably fine they just forgot to lock it or something after coming back in...I doubt..."

"Be quiet" Damon said as we walked up towards the door. "Listen to me...you stay here, don't move. I'm going to go in and check things out.

"Damon if they're in there..."

"Damn it I'm serious! STAY HERE. Do not go inside the house until I give you the ok...do you hear me?"

"Yeah..ok." he was starting to scare me a little. My parents were fine, right? They had to be.

I waited out on the porch for what seemed like hours. I checked my watch and it had been less than 10 minutes.

'Screw this' I thought 'I'm going in. It's probably nothing anyway.'

I walked in the house and tried to flip on the light switch...dead. That's not a good sign, is it? Ok maybe the power went out. We did just move...maybe something with the electric company got screwed up.

Slowly I walked through the living room and made my way around the furniture as best as I could. I still didn't see anything odd, the house seemed intact and nothing was moved. Moving through the living room I began making my way into the kitchen and was almost tripped up by something on the floor. It was so dark I couldn't see a thing.

I pulled out my phone and lit it up so I could see what I had just walked into...only to wish I hadn't. My father was lying on the ground stiff, his eyes wide open.

I began to panic and couldn't believe what I was seeing. My father couldn't be dead. I mean he could be hurt but not dead, right? He had to be alive! Please be alive please be alive! I bent down to see if I could find a pulse on his neck...nothing. I put my hands on his chest to see if I could feel him breathing...nothing. He was cold.

Oh god he's dead! Where's my mother? Where did Damon go? I collapsed on my knees next to my father's body and started yelling "DAMON! DAMON WHERE ARE YOU?"

I heard him running down the stairs as fast as he could "DAMN IT I TOLD YOU TO STAY ON THE PORCH! WHERE ARE YOU?"

"In the kitchen" I sobbed. "Damon what happened?"

He ran over and picked me up, holding me to him.

"It's ok...come on let's get out of the house. You shouldn't have seen this."

He brought me onto the porch and I collapsed again. "I don't understand..."

"I've already called the cops. They'll be here soon. Violet...I'm so sorry."

"Damon...my mother! Did you see her?"

He hesitated for a minute and averted his eyes from mine.

"Damon! IS SHE ALIVE? TELL ME WHAT YOU SAW!" I was hysterical.

"No...I'm sorry. She was upstairs in her room, dead just like your father."

I couldn't believe what was happening. How could this happen? No one even really knew us here! My father only started his job a little over a week ago! Why would someone kill my parents?

"Violet...are you ok? Come on, talk to me." Damon sat next to me where I had collapsed.

"I don't want to talk Damon." tears were flowing and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't even think straight.

"Please...you have to. Don't go into shock on me, ok? Stay here with me." he held my hand and squeezed it.

"I just don't understand..." I began "Who would do this? Did you see him? He was pale and shriveled...it looked like someone took all of the blood from him, Damon. What the hell happened?"

"I don't know." he replied "But we'll find out, ok?" he was so sweet, such a difference from earlier in the night during the party.

Within minutes the police arrived. Three cop cars, two ambulances, and for some reason Damon's brother Stefan showed up, and he brought Jeremy, Matt, and Bonnie with him.

Jeremy was the first one to run up to me "Oh God Vi I'm so sorry, I can't believe this." he gave me a hug and just held me for a while. I almost forgot what had happened earlier in the night until now, but I was in shock too much to even care at this point. I'd deal with that later.

Damon went over to where Matt, Bonnie, and Stefan were and began speaking with them. He was out of earshot so I couldn't hear what he had told them, but they all had horrified looks on their faces, Bonnie's eyes even began to tear up.

A female police officer came up to me and Jeremy finally let me go.

"Hi...are you Violet?" she asked me.

"Yes." was all I could reply.

"Hi Violet, my name is Carol. I'm actually Caroline's mom. Sweetie...I'm so sorry about what happened. But I need to ask you some questions, ok? I need you to help me on this."

Jeremy looked at me and I just nodded, telling him silently that I was ok.

She asked me a million questions, half of them I couldn't even remember. If I had known anyone that would want to kill my parents, if my parents had recently been in a fight with anyone in the area, what time I left for the party and what time I came back, had I spoken with them at all that night...I know there was more but I was having such a hard time concentrating I could barely even respond to half of the questions.

She finished with me and gave me a hug "We'll figure out who did this, ok? I promise you." and with that she went back to the other police officers and began speaking with them.

This time it was Stefan who came up to me.

"Violet...I'm so sorry. Listen, you shouldn't be here tonight. Come stay with us, okay? Bonnie will go in and pack some things for you, just let her know what you want. You shouldn't be alone right now, and there's plenty of room at the boarding house."

I didn't argue with him. I didn't want to spend the night alone in this house right now. Bonnie came over and asked me what I had wanted. Wracking my brain I told her a few outfits and my pajamas and robe and toothbrush and some other essentials. Honestly I didn't even care if she brought the right things back, I just didn't want to go back in that house.

The EMT's were bringing my parents bodies out of the house in the black bags and I just stared. I didn't even cry at that point, I froze just staring. That was it. Tonight was the last night I would ever see my parents alive. I couldn't believe it was all over that fast. 


	5. Chapter 5

The first few nights at the boarding house were awkward. People didn't really know what to say to me. Jeremy and Elena took turns staying with me during the night, I tended to have nightmares and would wake up screaming so they wanted to be there to calm me down. Even Damon stayed with me one of the nights. I was surprised but thankful at the same time. I didn't want to be alone for those first few days and I was just happy someone was there with me.

Carol showed up on the 5th day to speak with me. She asked if she could talk to me alone but I told her it was fine if anyone wanted to stay. Jeremy, Elena, Stefan, and Damon all crowded around the living room with me.

"So...Sheriff, any leads on what happened to the Peyton's?" Damon asked right away.

"Well...no, not exactly."

"Not exactly? What does that mean?" Jeremy responded.

"Well we have some ideas but nothing is set in stone yet. Violet, honey...are you sure you can't remember anything else?" she asked.

"No, I've told you everything I know. Have you spoken with anyone else? My dad's friends at work?"

"Well...that's the other news I came to tell you." she didn't look happy.

"Well...what is it?" I urged.

"Two of the men your father worked with on his last day of work...they were murdered last night. Much in the same way your parents were."

"Oh my god." Stefan replied.

"What does that even mean? So there's some sort of connection, right?" I was getting annoyed.

"Well...it seems that way." she seemed flustered.

"What do you mean it 'seems that way'? Why do I feel like there's something you're not telling me?"

"Violet, hey..." Elena spoke up "She's doing the best she can, she'd tell you if she knew something. Right Sheriff Forbes?"

"She's right, Violet. I'm sorry I know this is hard on you. We're doing the best we can. I know you're upset, and you have every right to be. I just came here to tell you that and check in on you. I've gotta get going now. If you can remember anything else, please call me, ok?"

After the first week I started feeling like I needed time to myself. With five people living under one roof and constantly asking how I was doing and worrying about me, I needed time alone. It took another week of convincing everyone that I was fine and ready to go back before they finally agreed.

Stefan seemed to be giving me the hardest time about it all. He wanted someone to be with me every night. I told him that would be exactly the same as me being here...which was what I was trying to get away from. In the end he reluctantly agreed and with everyone finally agreeing two days later and I loaded up my car with my things.

"Thanks for helping me with everything, Elena. I really appreciate it." I told her as we drove from the boarding house back to my parents house...err, well it would now be considered my house, I guess. I had no other family left...it was only me. That was kind of scary to think...so I stopped myself from doing it and just focused on what was going on now...which was Elena talking back to me.

"Anytime. That's what I'm here for. And seriously if you need to talk or just want someone to be around you call ANY of us, ok?"

I agreed although I wasn't even sure who I would call. These people were barely my friends, and I had only spoken to a handful of my old friends from back home. Most of them didn't even know what to say, they were just as shocked as I was about the entire situation.

We all gathered in front of the house and hauled everything back in. They stayed for about an hour before I finally started kicking people out.

"Ok guys, you can go now. I want to kick back and relax and not have to worry about looking fancy in front of all of you anymore, okay?" I cracked a smile...first time in a while.

"You could have been as unfancy as you wanted if it meant you wore this around the house!" Damon commented as he held up a pair of black underwear out of one of my boxes.

"Damon put that down! Oh my god we can't take you anywhere!" Elena's face turned bright red.

"I'm so sorry, Vi. He really doesn't know how to speak to other human beings sometimes." she sighed.

"Well I don't have to deal with them on a daily basis most days." he smiled.

"Damon I swear...okay I think it's time we go." Elena shoved Damon towards the door. "And I'm serious, Vi...if you need ANYTHING you call us, ok?"

"I swear I will. Don't worry about me I'm a big girl, remember?" I smiled and hugged her.

Elena, Stefan, and Damon walked out together and back into their cars. I hadn't even noticed Jeremy had stuck around until he said something.

"Can we talk for a few minutes now that everyone is gone?" he asked.

I knew this was coming. It had been weeks now since that night of the party and he owed me some kind of explanation. He and Bonnie had been almost inseperable ever since. I wonder if he even told her.

"Yeah...let's go sit down in the kitchen." I led the way.

We sat down and he didn't say anything for a few moments. Awkward silence hung in the air and I wasn't going to be the one to break it. It was all on him.

"Look..." he started "These past few weeks have been crazy. I still can't believe it all happened. How are you? Are you ok? I know what it's like to lose both parents at once...I thought I was gonna go nuts at one point."

He hit the nail on the head. I felt that way almost on a daily basis. My mother really was my best friend and it was so hard not to be able to call her every day and hear her voice. And my father...we were close too. The funeral hadn't even been a week ago and still it all felt like it happened so fast.

"I'm...doing as good as I can. I still cry a lot...most of the day. But it's getting better as the days go by." I replied. Not exactly what I thought we were going to talk about.

"Listen, I'm here if you ever want to talk. Elena can be, well, a flake at times. She seems like she's more interested in which Salvatore brother she wants to hook up with than her friends or family sometimes. So she's not really the best person to talk with. But really...if you need someone..."

"I want to talk about the night of the party...and not the part about my parents. The part before...with me and you." I cut him off "I know you were drunk, I might have been a little too...but you slept with me WHILE you had a girlfriend! And you never even told me!" my voice was raising and he looked surprised.

"Well...technically Bonnie and I weren't together then. I didn't...I really didn't mean to hurt you. Bonnie and I had a fight...and you were being so nice and sweet and...like you said, I was kind of drunk..." he rambled on and finally stopped himself and looked up at me.

"Oh god I'm so sorry, Vi. I never meant to hurt you. Please forgive me. Please say we can be friends? I really do like you...you're one of the sweetest people I know and I don't want to lose you." he had actual tears in his eyes.

I didn't really know what to say. He hurt me...he hurt me bad and I couldn't shake the feeling of being pissed at him.

"Does Bonnie know?" I asked, looking him dead in the eyes.

"No...please don't tell her! She'd never forgive me. It was a stupid mistake, I swear. I never do shit like that. Trust me, you can ask Tyler or Matt...I tell them everything and they know I would never..."

"Wait you tell them everything? You didn't tell them about us, did you?" That's all I needed. Gossip around the town about the new girl, who's parents died, who is also a big slut and slept with a guy who had a girlfriend. That would surely make my life in Mystic Falls even better!

"No! No I didn't tell anyone. Please don't tell Bonnie. I love her and it would kill her."

He loved her...he had a funny way of showing it. And still...the words stung to hear. I thought he really might have had feelings for me but I was wrong. But I didn't want to lose him as a friend. He was one of the nicest people to me when I lived here before and now.

"No...I won't tell her or anyone else. Your secret is safe with me."

"Thank you!" He shot up from the chair and gave me a huge hug "I swear someday I'll make it up to you. I don't know how but I will!"

"Yeah I'll hold you to that." I tried joking to mask the pain I was in.

"Listen I've gotta get going. Elena's right though, you can call any one of us and we'll be here, in a heartbeat. I will always be here for you, ok?"

"Yeah, ok. Thanks." he kissed my forehead and with that he left.

There I was standing in the middle of this big house that was nothing more than a stranger to me. I only had about a week to get used to it before my parents were taken. Now I'd have to get used to it on my own. I'd never lived by myself, never even thought about it. But I guess things change.


	6. Chapter 6

Classes had started within a few weeks and I was so happy for the distraction. Life was getting back to normal, or at least as normal as it was going to get. Still I had a feeling that I wasn't being told everything about my parent's deaths. Many times Elena or one of the gang would show up unannounced just to "check on me" and Sheriff Forbes would only tell me that they were "still looking into it". Surely in this small of a town with enough people they should be able to find out what happened, couldn't they?

I spent a lot of time either studying at the boarding house with Jeremy or studying at my house with him. Since we were both in a lot of classes we saw each other quite a bit, and I even began to forgive everything that had happened. Occasionally Bonnie would be with us and I didn't seem to mind her presence. She was always so nice to me and out of all of Elena's friends I think I liked her the best. Funny how that happened.

Although I couldn't shake my feelings for Jeremy. I think they grew even deeper and I hated myself for it. There were nights where I'd wake up from a nightmare, the same scene over and over again of me finding my parents, and I would call Jeremy and he'd come over and sit with me no matter what time of night. That didn't help. If only he didn't give a shit, maybe that would help. I knew he'd never reciprocate my feelings. It was obvious how much in love with Bonnie he was and I didn't want to rock that boat.

One afternoon while we were studying at the boarding house Sheriff Forbes showed up. It was the same thing she'd been telling me for weeks "Nothing new, no new leads, but we think we're finally closing in on someone." and at this point it all sounded like bullshit to me. She finally left and I finally snapped.

"This is such bullshit!" I yelled out "You mean to tell me she can't find ANYONE...ANYONE related to what happened to my parents!? And the people my father worked with...they were killed too! AND NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE ABOUT IT! ALL I KEEP HEARING IS HER TELL ME ABOUT SOME FUCKING 'LEADS' SHE HAS AND I DON'T EVEN BELIEVE HER ANYMORE!"

"Violet, calm down." Stefan had been in the room reading while I was there with Jeremy.

"Don't tell me to calm down! I think I've been pretty goddamn calm for months now! And no one knows a thing? More like nobody's telling me anything!"

At this point everyone had come downstairs to see what all the yelling was about. Elena had Bonnie and Caroline over to hang out and then Damon also appeared from whatever room he was in at the time.

"AND ANOTHER THING! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? You guys don't want me by myself, you're constantly watching me...and the other day I took a wrong turn to the bathroom and 3 of you showed up to redirect me."

Everything was coming out now. All of the annoyances from the past few months, all of the things that pissed me off...anything and everything I can think of.

"I think it's time to tell her what's going on here." Damon was the first one to speak.

"Damon not now! This isn't the time!" Stefan shot back.

"Well she's going to find out sooner or later! She's a big girl I think she can handle it! Besides...she's been hanging around us an awful lot she deserves to know." Damon came closer.

"Know what? What is it you're all keeping from me? Do you know what happened to my parents?" I was fuming. If they all knew and weren't telling me there's no telling what I was going to do to any one of them.

They all began arguing with each other about "she shouldn't know!" and "not putting her in danger!" and after a few moments of their bickering I had enough.

"LISTEN! Someone here better tell me what the hell is going on or I will REALLY lose my shit."

Everyone stood silent for a moment just staring at me. Apparently they must have thought I already lost my shit...little did they know.

"Alright...look, we'll tell you." Stefan began "But I think you'd better sit down."

Everyone sat in the living room making an odd shaped circle whilst sitting on the various pieces of furniture in the place.

"Violet...what I'm about to tell you...you might not believe. But hear me out before you freak out first, ok?" Stefan stated.

"Fine." was all I could even muster. I was still pissed.

"It wasn't random...what happened to your parents, or your father's work associates. They were attacked. Damon had mentioned that you thought it looked like their blood was drained from them, right?" Stefan stared right at me.

"What are you getting at?" I was becoming impatient.

"Well...the things that killed your parents...were vampires."

"I'm sorry...did you just say vampires?" Vampires? Did he really just say that? I couldn't have heard him right.

He cleared his throat and began again.

"Yes...vampires. Your father and his associates were doing...experiments on them. Trying to apparently turn them back into humans and we think some of them got pissed off and fought back and followed your father for a while and then attacked him when he was vulnerable at home."

"I don't think I'm understanding..." I was trying to process what the hell he had just said.

"Vampires. They're real. Oh and werewolves too, actually. And so are witches and ghosts...actually, anything you've read about in a book about mythical creatures is probably true." Damon replied.

I just stood and looked at them all for a minute. Were they serious with this? Were they playing a prank or something?

I turned and looked at Damon.

"Are you high?"

"No...I'm not high. This is serious. This is why we've all been keeping an eye on you, we don't want them to retaliate." Damon looked serious.

"He's right, Violet. I'm sorry you had to find out like this." Jeremy finally spoke.

"And just so you're in the loop...Jeremy here is a vampire hunter. Bonnie is a witch, and Elena, Caroline, Stefan, and myself are all vampires. Just think you ought to know." Damon smirked again.

Did he really think this was funny? I had enough.

"You know what...I'm done. I thought all of you people were my friends but this isn't even funny. You're making jokes when my parents are dead and no one knows a damn thing about it. I'm leaving."

I heard various people try to talk me down and explain that what they said was true but it was to no avail. I kept on heading towards the door. I was done with this conversation and done with all of them. I could certainly find more friends in Mystic Falls if I had to.

Before I even made it to the door Damon was already standing in front of it. Interesting...how did he get there so fast?

"Get out of my way, Damon. I'm over this."

He didn't move. I tried shoving him and pushing him but he was like stone, he wouldn't move no matter how hard I tried.

"You can't keep me here! I'll call the police and tell them what a bunch of whack jobs all of you are!"

"Good luck with that, sweetheart." he replied and grabbed my arm, pulling me closer towards him. Within seconds his face changed. His eyes turned black and fangs descended down from his face. He let go of me and I stumbled back.

"What the hell..."


	7. Chapter 7

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" I screamed. Did I just see what I thought I did? Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. I thought for a second they really were...until he did it again.

"Damon...that's enough." Stefan finally got in between us.

"What the hell is going on!?" I began moving towards Elena...only to remember what Damon had said. She was one of them, too!

"Violet...we didn't want you to find out this way. We were going to tell you..." Elena began.

"Are you the ones who killed my parents? WAS IT ALL OF YOU?" I was becoming hysterical, I could hear it in my voice.

"Of course not!" she replied "We would never do that! Violet you're one of my best friends...I hate seeing you so sad like this. We all do. We've all been trying to find out who the hell did this and make them pay! We're not all bad, I promise!"

"I think I need some time to myself..." I headed towards the door.

"Violet please don't be upset!" Elena called out behind me.

"I'll call you when I can." I yelled back. I wasn't even sure I was going to call them back ever, at this point.

I drove myself back home in complete shock. What the hell did I just see? This can't be real. It was some sort of joke or something. Haha let's make fun of Violet and see if we can get a rise out of her! It had to be a joke.

I pulled into the driveway and ran into the house, locking the door behind me and headed right for my room. My phone rang a few times, I just ignored it. I couldn't stand to talk to any of them. And I had no one else to talk to. This sucked. I mean, I could call my friends back home but if I started telling them that my new group of friends are all vampires and oh, by the way vampires also killed my parents, I think they would just consider me insane and probably find a way to get me put away.

Maybe I was insane. People see and hear things after traumatic events, right? Maybe that's what was happening to me. My parents were killed by someone...someone who was awful and sick and disgusting and came right into their house to kill them and...ok...maybe this isn't what I should be thinking about as I'm alone in that very same house. Tomorrow I was going to call up a security company and get a system installed.

Exhausted from the long and confusing day, I decided to take a long bath and then go right to sleep. My phone kept ringing all day and I just kept on ignoring it. Maybe sleep would clear my head.

The next day I made good on my word and called a security company and after an hour of begging they finally agreed to come out in the afternoon. I think telling them I was the daughter of the two that recently were murdered in their house made them quicken the pace.

I still hadn't answered my phone, and now they began coming to my door and knocking, saying they just wanted to talk and to call them anytime I wanted. Caroline, Elena, Stefan, Bonnie, and Jeremy all made their rounds. They knew I was home, the car was in the driveway, at least they didn't push me coming to the door. The security sign on the front lawn probably scared them a little bit, too.

I skipped out on a few classes for a week but I knew I couldn't keep that up. I just did my best to avoid all of them on campus, which wasn't exactly easy. Jeremy was in a few of my classes and he would always try to talk to me and I just kept telling him I wasn't ready.

This went on for weeks. I did nothing but go to school and then come home and sit there all day. Sometimes I'd call my friends from back home or we'd skype, but I was really starting to feel lonely. All shut up in this big house by myself wasn't helping me with my situation with my parents, if anything it was making me even worse. All I did was think about that night when I found my dad and how he looked. And I kept thinking that it could happen again...and no one would know. It could take weeks. I had completely isolated myself from everyone and I knew I couldn't keep it up.

I wasn't ready to speak to Elena...or Caroline or any of them who claimed they were "vampires". The first person I decided to call was Jeremy. What did they say he was? A hunter? I didn't even know what that was supposed to mean but at least he wouldn't have that face that Damon had. At least I hoped not.

Picking up the phone I dialed his number and he answered right away.

"I'm so glad you finally called. I've been so worried." he replied.

"I think I'm ready to talk. But only you, ok? Can you come over?"

"I'm on my way." he didn't even hesitate.

"Jeremy I'm serious...no one else, please. Just you."

"I promise."

As I waited for him I kept going over what I would say to him. None of it sounded sane at all. I really hoped he would be the one to talk me down and tell me that I didn't hear them right or that it was a joke. Even a cruel joke would be better than what they said was real.

It took him less than 10 minutes to get to my house and I let him in and led him into the living room. For a few minutes we didn't say anything to each other we just sat there looking at each other.

Finally I broke the silent tension.

"Jeremy...what the hell is going on? Please tell me I didn't hear what I think I heard."

"The vampire thing...I knew you wouldn't take it well. I told Damon not to tell you. I wanted to at least break it to you gently."

"So...you mean to tell me, it's true? Come on...all of that shit is just in books and movies. It's not real."

"Didn't you see Damon's face?"

"I thought..." I didn't know how to finish that.

"You thought maybe you were just seeing things? I thought the same thing the first time I found out. It wasn't long after my parents died, too. I thought I was finally losing it. Then I saw Vicki and I couldn't..."

"Wait!" I cut him off "Vicki...Vicki Donavan? Matt's sister?"

"Yeah...she was turned, by Damon actually. She was good for a while with it, but I don't think she could handle it. She lost it and started attacking people and Stefan..."

"Stefan killed her?" I was shocked.

We talked for over an hour. He explained a lot to me and even when I was having a hard time following things like doppleganger and hybrids he didn't get frustrated, just kept on explaining.

"So...let me get this straight. You're a vampire hunter...and your sister is a vampire. How is that working out for you?"

"Yeah...that was tough at first. It takes me a little time to control myself around any new vampire I come across. My immediate response is always 'kill' but I eventually can talk myself down."

"So...you're kind of like Buffy?" I joked.

"Hey! I'm much cooler than Buffy! She's got nothing on me!" he feigned a hurt look.

"Please...Buffy had Angel...AND Spike. You can't top that Jer, sorry."

I guess I was finally starting to accept everything. It still freaked me out, and I'm not sure how I was going to feel around everyone. I mean...these guys all liked drinking blood from humans. And there I was readily available. But I had been here for a few months already...and no one had tried ripping my throat out. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad?

Jeremy just smiled at me and sat back on the couch. "So you're ok?" he asked.

"Yeah I think so. Thanks again for coming over here. I hope I didn't bother you. Bonnie must hate me for constantly dragging you away from her."

"Nah, she was actually happy you called and wanted to talk to someone. She was worried about you."

Great. This girl was making it impossible to hate her, wasn't she?

"Listen..." he started "why don't you come back to the boarding house with me? Everyone will want to see you again and you should be around friends and family. "

He knew me so well already. Although being through a similar experience I guess he knows what I'm going through. I reluctantly agreed and he drove us there.

He called Elena while we were on our way and told her he was bringing her with me. He spoke with her for just a few short minutes and then sighed as he hung up the phone.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Well...the good news is, Elena's thrilled that you're talking to everyone again. The bad news...she's calling everyone to come over so they can all talk to you."

"Great." I muttered.

"Yeah I know. Oh well at least you've got me there, right?" he smiled.

"True." I laughed.

Jeremy wasn't lying when he said Elena called everyone. There were so many cars in the driveway and against the curb that you would have thought there was another party going on.

We walked inside and went straight for the living room. Ugh he didn't lie, everyone was there. Stefan, Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Damon, Matt, and even Tyler was there.

"What's up guys?" I tried breaking the tension.

"Violet I'm so happy you called and came here. That was horrible for us to do to you like that." Elena came over and sat on the couch next to me. "Well all had agreed on when to tell you but...well..OBVIOUSLY other people had other things in mind." she shot a death look at Damon.

"Look, she had a right to know. Besides she would have caught on soon enough, she's not stupid." Damon replied.

"Uhh...thanks?" Was that supposed to be a compliment?

"Anyway, look..." Elena began "We all want to explain everything to you...if you're ready."

"Yeah I guess." now was as good a time as any.

Everyone took their turns talking about what they were, how everything worked and so on. The best explanation was from Matt.

"Well...I'm a human, who just happens to have a bunch of supernatural-type friends. I eat regular human food, I can go out in the sunlight or the full moon, and I work at the Grill."

"Matt you're so bland as a human you wouldn't last 5 minutes as a vampire that's why no one has tried turning you." Damon drawled on.

"Ignore them. Do you have any other questions for us?" Bonnie asked.

"No I think I've got it all. It's just going to take some time to process."

"Do you want to stay, hang out a little bit?" Elena asked. I could tell she wanted me to.

Truth was I was exhausted from the day and taking everything in left my brain nothing but mush. Besides...Tyler was giving me those looks again, and Caroline was giving HIM some weird looks and it was all just getting rather uncomfortable.

"No, thanks. I'm pretty tired and it's getting late. I really appreciate what you've all done for me. You're a lot better to me than I deserve."

"That's not true." Bonnie grabbed my hand. "You're a great person. You just had traumatic experience and then we all threw this at you, it's understandable."

"Well, thank you again. I appreciate it." I smiled at her.

"Alright well, I'll drive you home, Vi. I'm giving Bonnie a lift, too." Jeremy stood up.

"No that's way too far for you. We're on opposite ends of the town. I can just call a cab it's no big deal." besides...I wasn't about the get in a car with Tyler or Caroline at this point, and I still didn't really even know Matt.

"Didn't I tell you those cab drivers were creeps?" Damon spoke up "It's fine Jer, I'll take her home. She's right, it's far out of your way. Besides you can spend some alone time with your woman."

"No, really...I'm fine I'll call a cab."

"Damon's right...for once. People in this town are shady and you definitely shouldn't walk home. If you don't feel comfortable with him taking you I can take you." Stefan replied.

"And why would ANYONE feel uncomfortable around me?" Damon smirked.

"Oh I don't know, maybe because you scared the shit out of her the last time she saw you!" Stefan shot back.

"Look, she's fine. And I told you before Vi, I don't bite...not unless you ask me to." another smirk.

"Yeah Damon being a creep is really going to make her want you driving her home even more!"

"Stefan what the hell is your problem?"

"You are my problem, Damon!"

"Ok that's enough!" I stood up "No one needs to argue over taking me home. Damon it's fine you can take me." I'm not sure why I agreed with it but I just wanted them to stop arguing.

"See, she made the smart decision after all. Let's go, doll." And with that Damon walked out the door.

"Look, I'll call you tomorrow Elena, ok?" I gave everyone a hug and followed Damon out the door.

Damon was already in the car and had it running before I even got to the front door. Guess that super speed thing was true, after all.

"Get in, gas is expensive!" he remarked.

I got in and he pulled away from the curb and into the night. For a few minutes we didn't say a word to each other or even look in each other's direction. God could this be any more awkward? Maybe I should have let Stefan drive me.

"You shouldn't trust any of them, you know." he finally spoke.

"But I should trust you?" I responded.

"I'm the only one that told you the truth, wasn't I?" he had a point.

"I think they were just trying to protect me."

"Yeah well, that's how people get hurt or killed around here. They should have told you right when your parents died."

I didn't respond right away. Hearing the words "parents" and "died" in the same sentence still stung.

"Do you know anything else about what happened?" I asked him, finally looking at him.

"I know they're still out there, whoever did it. That's why you need to be careful. I know you have that fancy alarm system but there are ways of getting around things like that."

"Great! Well...I feel completely safe now." I muttered.

Our conversation lasted until we finally pulled in front of my house.

"I'm serious! Why do you think I drove you home? So you'd be safe. Listen, if anything happens again...if you think even the slightest noise sounds off, you call either me or Stefan. Don't call Elena or Bonnie or even Jeremy. Me or Stefan, got it?" he tone was serious.

"Yeah...I got it."

"Do you want me to walk you to your door?" he asked.

"Uhm, no. That would just be an awkward end to an already awkward night and I think I've had enough of that, thanks."

He cracked a smile as I headed out the door.

"Violet" he called as I began to walk away. "I'm serious...if you feel uncomfortable, you give me or Stefan a call, ok?"

"I swear." I crossed my heart, just like I always did when my mother would say anything similar to me.

"You're a good kid." he replied. He didn't leave until I closed the front door.

I was so exhausted and all I could think of was a long, hot shower and my big, comfy bed.


	8. Chapter 8

The next two months went on and nothing spectacular happened until one rainy, Thursday afternoon. Elena called me in hysterics saying she needed to come over and talk to me "right away."

While I waited for her I thought maybe she found out something about my parents, or maybe it was something about Jeremy. I wracked my brain thinking of what it could be and tried preparing myself for the worst.

She showed up and was in tears and I led her to the living room to sit down.

"Elena...what's going on? Is everything ok?" I was worried.

"Stefan and I broke up!" well...at least nothing too terrible had happened.

"I'm...I'm so sorry, Elena. What happened?"

"He accused me of having a thing for Damon!" Damon? She had a thing for Damon? Wait...Jeremy did mention something about that, didn't he?

"Well...do you?" I asked.

"No!" she looked up at me "Well...not until...last night."

"Oh boy..." was all I could say.

"Stefan and I were arguing and we finally broke up and Damon was there and we had a few drinks and...well, you know. And now I'm so confused, I don't know what to do!"

"Wow" was all I could manage to say. I mean...if she weren't my friend I would probably tell her how I felt about a girl who breaks up with her boyfriend and then sleeps with his brother. But I wasn't about to go there. "That's about to get awkward with all of you living in the same house, isn't it?"

"Tell me about it. Ugh I just don't understand what happened." she sighed.

"Well...so where do you and Damon stand now?" I asked.

"I'm not sure." she responded. "I haven't spoken to him since we...well, last night."

"You might want to start there. And you owe it to Stefan to tell him how you really feel."

"Yeah you're right. Thanks for letting me come over and talk. I think I'll send Damon a text and meet up with him at The Grill." she replied.

"Why don't you just go back home and talk with him?" I asked.

"I don't want a replay of last night happening."

"Ah, I see. Good thinking!" I smiled back at her.

Elena left quickly, mumbling something about "call you later!" as she shut the door behind her.

I still was in shock from what she told me. She slept with Damon? Stefan seemed like a pretty nice guy, I couldn't imagine why she'd want to mess that up.

I shrugged it off and got ready and went to my afternoon class. Sure it was nothing more than a boring lecture, but I think that's exactly what I needed right now.

On the drive home my phone rang and I was surprised that it was Elena. I hadn't expected a call from her that soon.

"Soooooooo..." she began "Damon and I talked. We both agreed that it was a mistake and that it's not going to happen again. AND I also made up with Stefan and we're back together. Isn't that great?"

"Uhh...does he know that you slept with his brother?" I couldn't imagine Stefan being ok with that.

"No! I can't tell him...you can't either! And I threatened to kill Damon if he did, so no...no one can tell Stefan! I don't want to mess things up again. Stefan's a great guy, you know?"

"Yeah...I know." I couldn't believe she wasn't going to tell him! It wasn't my place, I was staying out of it. But I knew he would find out someday. "Well...I'm glad everything worked out for you."

"Thanks so much! I'm so glad you're here, it's been so nice being able to have someone to talk to who doesn't jump down my throat. I mean, Caroline and Bonnie hate Damon so it's hard to talk..." Elena trailed off.

"Woah...never said I was a fan of him, either." I chimed in.

"Oh come on. I know you don't hate him. Damon can be a good guy, too."

"When he's not sleeping with his brother's girlfriend?" I smirked.

"Remember you're supposed to be the friend who DOESN'T judge?" She replied.

"Okay okay, you're right. Well I'm glad things are better."

"Me too! Well I'll talk to you later, girl!"

"Bye!" I hung up the phone, still a little disappointed that Elena would do something like that, but who was I to judge?

I lugged my books and purse into my house and sat down on the couch. Tonight was going to be my "me" night. Nothing but myself, some food, drinks, and Pretty Woman. That movie could always make me feel better. Who doesn't love a movie about a millionaire falling in love with a hooker?

I woke up a while later to my phone ringing loudly. I went to grab it and realized it wasn't usually where I left it...and neither was my nightstand. I opened my eyes and realized I must have fallen asleep on the couch and slept there all night. That's going to feel good on my back, later!

"Hello?" I groggily answered.

"Violet, it's Stefan. I uhh...I need to talk with you. Can you come by the boarding house?"

It was Saturday so I had no classes, and no plans really.

"Sure I'll be over, give me a few minutes to get dressed and ready, ok?"

"Yeah that's fine." he sounded worried.

"I'll be quick I promise." I assured him.

"Ok. See you soon."

I quickly brushed my teeth and hair and dressed myself and rushed out the door. I couldn't imagine what happened now. Did Stefan find out about Damon and Elena? Is that why he wanted to see me? Wait...why would he want to talk to me about it? Would he even want to?

I wracked my brain the entire ride over trying to figure out what he seemed so worried about.

I sprinted into the house and was greeted by...everyone sitting in the living room. EVERYONE. Stefan, Damon, Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Tyler, Matt, and Jeremy.

What the hell? This again? Now what were they going to tell me? Matt can turn into a cat?

"Hey, Vi." Jeremy smiled at me and came up to give me a hug. "Glad you're here."

"What's going on?" I asked as he guided me to sit on one of the couches.

"Sheriff Forbes will be here soon. I think we should wait until she gets here to talk." Stefan replied.

Sheriff Forbes? What the hell were we waiting for her for? Then it hit me...

"Is this about my parents? Did she find something out?" It had been MONTHS and there were still no leads or any details the police had found since that day.

"I really think it's best if we wait." Stefan chimed in.

"If you know something you better tell me now or so help me Stefan I don't care if you're a vampire or not I will rip your head off." I was beyond pissed.

The front door opened just as I got in his face, and in walked Sheriff Forbes.

"Ahhh Sheriff, impeccable timing. Almost had another homicide on your hands here." Damon remarked.

"Everything ok?" she asked, looking surprised.

"Everything is fine. What the hell is going on?" I backed away from Stefan.

"Well...we finally found something. Although I'm not sure if we can consider it a good thing."

"Why the hell not?" I knew I was being a bitch but I did not care at this point. Anything to tell me why this happened to my parents was going to be better than nothing.

"I think you should sit down." she looked at me sternly. I wanted to protest but I could tell she wasn't exactly thrilled at what she was about to tell me.

It took her a while to explain everything. They found a lair of vampires(a lair...they actually had lairs...i can't...) that were apparently pissed about my father and his colleagues working on a cure for vampirism. Why on earth they would be working on it at a college was beyond me but I decided not to ask, I was already getting confused as it was.

"So...why would they be pissed? A cure would be a good thing, wouldn't it?" I asked.

"Some vampires don't see it that way. Some of them want to stay exactly how they are." Stefan responded.

"What? Why would anyone want to stay like that? Uhh...no offense." I quipped.

"Who doesn't want to be a vampire? Eternal youth! We're young and sexy forever! And vital...you never grow old or tired. I, for one, love it." Damon stood up and poured himself a drink. "So we have to drink some blood once in awhile? Honestly, it's not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things."

"Yes well, I highly doubt everyone feels that same way, Damon. Not everyone who is a vampire thinks they're God's gift to...well, everyone." Bonnie snidely remarked towards him.

"Hey, I resent that! I AM God's gift to everyone. Who wouldn't want me?" he smirked.

"Can we please get back to the matter at hand?" Sheriff Forbes shot back.

"There's more? What else could there be?" I wondered.

"This part is kind of scary." She looked away from me.

"What else could be more scary than vampires, werewolves, and witches and on top of all of that, my parents dying? I mean really I think i've been through a lot of bad shit already." I retorted.

"There was a component in the cure they were working on that wasn't destroyed, and they're still looking for it."

"Well...what is it? We'll find it and destroy whatever it is." Matt, ever the good guy, stood up and walked over towards us.

"It's not that simple Matt." the Sheriff replied. She was silent for a minute until she finally looked at me."Violet...the component that they were using was blood...the blood of your parents...your blood. They killed them thinking they'd get rid of it all, but they didn't realize you wouldn't be there. They're going to try and kill you. You're next."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Woah...hold on, what? No one told me this. Stefan how did you not tell me this?" Damon was actually pissed and almost flying off the handle.

"Because we thought the less people knew about it the better. But at this point Elena and I have been tracking these guys and listening to them. They're going to make their move soon."

"So...now what?" I finally asked. "What happens? Do we just sit and wait for them to come? What am I supposed to do?"

Everyone was trying to figure out the best way to handle the situation. Finally after about 20 minutes of arguing and yelling from just about everyone, there was an agreement made.

Damon, Stefan, Elena, and Jeremy would take turns watching the house at night when I was alone. Tyler, Matt, and Caroline all agreed to do patrol around the neighborhood to keep an eye out for anyone that looked suspicious. Bonnie had asked if I let anyone in the house recently and I told her the security guys and the cable guy a few weeks ago. She agreed to put a spell on the house that wouldn't allow any vampires into the house even if they had been invited in already.

"Wait...won't that kind of negate the fact that we're supposed to be keeping an eye on her?" Damon asked.

"All she has to do is invite us in again, that's not a problem." Stefan responded.

They had been tipped off that these vampires were going to be trying within the next few days so they all discussed who was going to be doing what, and when. I felt so defenseless. Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, Hunters...and then me. The boring human. At least Matt knew how I felt but even he was more equipped to situations like these.

"Don't worry, they won't get anywhere near you." Jeremy must have seen the look on my face.

"Thanks. I know. Just scary thinking these guys already killed my parents and want me dead now, too. It's so weird...my blood. Who would have thought?"

"I'm betting that whole 'can't be compelled' thing has something to do with it." Damon replied.

"When did you try and compel me!?" I exclaimed.

"The first night we met at the party. I figured you'd give me a hard time taking you home so I tried it. Didn't work. Sorta makes sense now." he responded.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"I've never met anyone who I couldn't compel. Even people with a strong will I can usually break down at some point. You're the only one I can't do it to."

"Well...I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or not." I murmured.

I agreed that I could skip the last few days of classes for the week in order to be around everyone else. During the day I'd be with someone and at night someone would be with me. Seemed easy enough. Now to just wait for the bad guys.

That first night Jeremy wanted to stay. I almost wish he hadn't. I still didn't know where we stood. And being around him wasn't easy. It took every fiber of my being not to kiss him or go over the events that happened at that party months ago.

We spent most of the night playing cards and watching tv. He asked if I wanted anything to drink and I declined. I didn't want to do anything stupid. He got himself a beer and we just sat and hung out. It was nice, I just wished it could have been more. And then I felt guilty thinking that because Bonnie was being so great to me. I had to stop trying to think about Jeremy the way I had been. We're just friends, nothing more.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh...uh, not much. I'm getting kind of tired. I want to head to bed."

"Well let me know when you're ready. I'll be right up."

"What?" I asked. Jeremy? In my bedroom? BAD IDEA!

"Well you don't think i'm going to leave you alone, do you? I'm supposed to be here keeping an eye on you." he smiled. Was he flirting? Ehh...i was just probably doing some wishful thinking. No need to dwell on it, I decided to just go get ready for bed.

After I was finished and called him upstairs things got awkward. If they could even get any more awkward. Jeremy laid down on the floor with a pillow which looked absolutely uncomfortable, and I laid in my bed completely silent.

"Well...this is fun." I said.

"Just try and get some rest." he tried reassuring me.

"Jer...I just found out today that my blood may be some sort of component for a vampire cure and that there are vampires who are hunting after me because of it. Do you honestly think i'm going to be able to sleep tonight?" I sat up and looked down at him.

"Vi seriously, no one is going to let anything happen to you. Especially with me here!" he sat up as well.

"Ugh this is just all so absurd. You know what? Get up here. This bed is huge and I want to at least feel somewhat safe knowing you're next to me and not rolling around on the floor." I told him.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea?" he looked a little uneasy.

"I promise I'll try and contain myself." I said it in a joking manner but in reality I meant every word.

After another minute of him thinking about it he finally climbed into the bed. I knew it would be really awkward and I couldn't help but feel like I just wanted to reach over and kiss him and have him hold me and repeat that night that happened a few months ago, all over again. The best and worst night of my life all at once.

But I kept my distance and we made small talk back and forth for another hour or so until we both drifted off to sleep.

I woke up the next morning feeling safe and secure. Was this a dream? I was wrapped up tight in Jeremy's arms, and I hadn't felt this at peace in a very long time. I wanted to stay here forever and never get up.

Unfortunately we were both startled by someone who decided to clear their throat in the room behind us.

We both jumped, fearing that someone had gotten in, but took a sigh of relief when we noticed it was just Bonnie.

Just...Bonnie. Who JUST saw us in bed together with Jeremy holding me. Holy shit!

"Uh...sorry Bonnie, I swear it wasn't what it looked like! We just fell asleep and..." I was trying to save face but I knew I was losing it.

"Really...it's fine. I know Jeremy thinks of you as a little sister. I'm just here to tell you guys you made it. The first night is over. No one saw anything suspicious either."

A sister? A SISTER? Is that what he's telling her?

I looked directly over at Jeremy who was very much avoiding any eye contact with me at this point.

"Thanks babe." he walked over to Bonnie and gave her a kiss "Couldn't have done it without you. Let's get going!"

And that was that. He walked out the door with her and didn't say anything else to me.

WHAT THE HELL?

I decided that I didn't feel like hanging out at my house or at the boarding house until my next babysitter arrived so I headed out to the Grill. I knew Jeremy wasn't working so I would at least be able to avoid him and most of the others for a while.

I didn't plan on Matt being there, but he wasn't on my shit list at the moment and was giving me free food so I didn't really mind his company. It was nice being able to talk with someone else who was just, well, HUMAN. Sometimes it's hard to remember we're still out there when you're friends that are surrounding you are all witches and vampires and werewolves.

I confided in Matt that I felt awful for putting all of these people in danger. They didn't really know me that well, at least not anymore. And yet they're all willing to put their lives in danger for me.

"That's sort of what they do." he replied. "Look, some of them can be real dicks at times, but they usually mean well. Well...except for Damon. He's just a dick. Don't ever trust him. But the rest of them are decent and they really try and do what's best for their friends. It's more like a family, since most of us don't have any left."

"Thanks, Matt. I appreciate it. You mind if I hang out here and bug you for a little while longer? I just want to lay low for a bit."

"Sure, no problem." he smiled.

I stayed for a while and then got pretty bored with small talk with Matt. Great guy, REALLY cute, but not exactly the best when you've run out of things to talk about. I knew they were all trying to keep a close eye on me but I just needed to get away, so I snuck away when he wasn't looking.

I took a long drive through the city and wound up by the lake. It was really peaceful and quiet and just what I needed. My phone kept ringing, I guess Matt finally realized I wasn't in the bathroom and tipped them all off. I knew they meant well,but I just needed time to myself. I sent a text to Elena telling her I was fine, and that I was heading back to my house.

Of all nights, tonight was Damon's night to babysit me. The LAST person I really wanted to be around after last night's fiasco. Granted, it's not like I could really talk to ANYONE about Jeremy and I, but Damon had a way of prodding things out of you even without you saying anything. I just wasn't in the mood.

I picked up some takeout on my way home and by the time I got back it was already dark. Damon was sitting on my porch looking like an angry parent whose daughter was out too late on a date.

"Where the hell have you been? You don't answer any calls? You remember that the bad vampires are looking for you and want to kill you, right? Do you have a death wish, or something?" he was pissed.

"I just needed some time to myself." I sat on the porch and opened up my food and began to eat.

"Wouldn't you rather eat inside?" he asked.

"No, I'm good here." I replied. I didn't say much to him while I finished eating and he didn't continue to berate me any more. Although he still looked pretty angry.

"Well," I said packing up the food "I've had a long day, I'm ready for a shower and my bed." I got up and opened the door.

"Uhhh...aren't you forgetting something?" I heard Damon behind me. "Can't get in unless you invite me, remember?"

"Yeah I remember. And I really don't trust you, so you won't be invited in." I turned around to face him and smiled.

"Are you kidding me?" he tried shoving his way in but he couldn't move. "Damn it this is no time to be funny, invite me in!"

"Look, you can hang out and keep an eye on the house. If anything happens I'll yell or something." I told him.

"And what if you can't yell?" he was really pissed now.

"Well I'm sure I'll figure something out."

I shut the door in his face and walked up the stairs. I could hear him banging on the door and swearing but I didn't care. I wondered if he'd call Elena and the crew to let them know. I really didn't care. I was right, he could watch the house and there were people patrolling the neighborhood so I would be fine. Plus with the protection spell Bonnie put on the house no one was getting in.

I went straight to my shower when I got in my room and took a nice long, hot shower while I cleared my mind of everything that was going on. I just needed some peace and quiet, I don't know why everyone didn't understand that. I get that they want to help, but it was all starting to get to me. I had to just let it all go for a little bit and try and focus on myself. I was beginning to feel like I was losing myself and I needed to rope everything back in.

I got dressed and headed into my room, my bed looked so inviting. I took off my robe and began to hop in while glancing out the window and I screamed at what I saw.

"GODDAMN IT DAMON ARE YOU SERIOUSLY HANGING OUT IN THE FUCKING TREE OUTSIDE OF MY ROOM!?"

"Hey, you wouldn't let me in, I need to keep an eye on you! This way we both win!" he smirked at me.

"No. Absolutely not! Get out of that goddamn tree now or so help me I'll..."

"You'll what? Come over here and pull me out of the tree? I'd love to see you try! Seriously, stop acting like such a brat. Everyone is trying to help you. I know your life has been shit these past few months, and I know you're freaked out about these asshole vampires who are on the loose. WE ARE TRYING TO HELP YOU. So let us help, will you?"

Ugh, he was right. I was acting like a brat. Well I was acting like a bitch, I think he was just trying to be nice.

"Fine. You can stay in the tree. But I'm still not inviting you in. I don't trust you." I finally got into my bed.

"I don't get why you don't trust me. I've been the honest one with you all along. Or maybe it's yourself you don't trust? You afraid that maybe you'll wake up in MY arms tomorrow morning instead of Jeremy's?" he smirked.

"Wha-How? How did you know about that?" I gasped.

"Lovers quarrel between Bonnie and Jeremy. Wasn't pretty, I can tell you that." he leaned back onto the branch he was sitting on. I had to admit...Damon was pretty damn sexy. And now I want to punch myself in the face for even thinking that. Great.

"But I thought...Bonnie said that..."

"Oh the brother-sister thing? What a load of crap." he replied.

"Why is it a load of crap? It could be true." I was a bit defensive.

"Yeah because a lot of guys sleep in a bed and wake up holding onto their hot, redhead sisters. Happened to me at least three times!" he retorted.

"Well I mean I think of Jeremy the same way and...wait...did you just call me hot?" seriously...did he?

"Let's not change the subject now...you were talking about how you think of Jeremy as a brother..." he replied.

"You know what? I'm done with this conversation. I'm tired, I want to go to bed. You can creep out there if you want to all night, it's fine. But please just let me sleep, ok?"

"Yeah alright. If you need me just yell." for once he didn't make a smart remark.

It took me a little while to fall asleep. I tossed and turned for a good hour or so. It was definitely a different situation than last night. Rather than sleeping in bed with someone who I cared for, I had someone outside my window in the tree watching me sleep. In any other circumstance it would be kind of creepy.

I woke up in the middle of the night startled. I couldn't breathe and thought for a minute that I was dreaming but I realized I was awake...and in my room...and surrounded by 4 guys, one of whom was pinning me down to the bed and choking me.

I tried calling for Damon but nothing would come out. I managed to glance over and he was fast asleep on that damn branch. I started trying to kick and flail as best as I could but he was so strong!

"It's no use, sweetheart. Four against one!" he was inches from my face and all I could see was pure evil in his eyes.

I was beginning to panic because I hadn't been able to breathe in so long. I kicked and kicked and finally I heard Damon stir.

"What the fuck!? Get out! Violet, invite me in!"

"Ahhh yes, your little sleeping friend. Wouldn't invite him in? How telling. See if he would have a little witch friend of his own like me, he'd know that there are ways around those silly spells of theirs."

My vision was going dark and everything was starting to sound far away. With one last effort I kicked him right in the balls and he finally let go.

I gasped for breath a few times and finally yelled "DAMON GET IN HERE NOW!"

He sped into the room and as I was trying to catch my breath he managed to actually rip the hearts out of two of them. Normally I would have been freaked out but I was just so happy he finally made it there.

He made it to the third one and as he was ripping into him, the fourth guy grabbed my arm. Pain shot through my arm as he sliced my arm open with a knife.

"This is what we've been looking for! Your stupid father and his friends thought it was the cure. It's not the cure...but it's the best damn blood we've ever had. That's why we've come looking for you!" finally Damon got around and ripped the guy's head clean off. All four of them were dead on my bedroom floor.

Damon helped me up. I looked around for a minute before I turned to him. I was about to thank him and then I saw the look in his eyes.

"You need to go." he told me.

"What? Damon...are you ok? What's wrong?"

"GET OUT RIGHT NOW!" he yelled, his eyes turning black and his fangs coming out. I froze for a second before my instincts kicked in and I ran out of the house.

Apparently it was Matt's night for patrol and he came rushing up to the house.

"Are you alright? What happened? Did they show up?" he was frantic.

"Yeah, I think I'm okay. Damon took care of them. I need to sit down."

"You're bleeding...pretty bad. Let's get you to the hospital." he helped me over to his car.

"Where is Damon?" he asked as we got into the car and pulled into the street.

"I don't know. He took one look at me, vamped out, and then told me to get the hell out of the house."

"He just left you there? I'll kill him!"

The rest of the drive was uneventful and we got to the hospital fairly quickly. The doctor's took me back and told me how lucky I was, had they gotten a seventh of an inch over to the left they would have nicked a vein. I had a feeling that's what they intended to do. 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The doctor's wouldn't allow visitors that first night and I didn't answer my phone because I was so drowsy from all of the meds I was on for the pain. The next morning everyone filtered into my room one by one, Damon being the only one who wasn't there.

"So tell us your side of the story, because we only have Damon's and we didn't even get a full story from him. He wouldn't even come home last night he just called Stefan and told him what happened." Elena sat on the bed next to me.

I told them everything, except for the small talk with Damon. Of course I heard from everyone at least twice how stupid I was and how I should have invited Damon in. I knew that was coming.

Jeremy, in particular, was pretty angry at the entire situation.

"I cannot believe he just left you after that happened! I should have been there. You would have been safe with me. None of this would have happened. I'm gonna kill him when I see him."

"Well looks like you'll have your chance, little Gilbert. Here I am." Damon walked into the room.

Immediately Jeremy took a swing at Damon, which caused a scuffle in the room and ended up with Jeremy pinning Damon against the wall with a stake in his hand, ready to kill him. He really takes that hunter thing seriously, walking around with stakes and all.

"You guys, enough! You're going to get us kicked out of here and we'll never find out what the hell is really going on!" Caroline broke up the fight.

"Thank you." I replied. "Now...Damon, what happened? You vamped out and told me to leave, and then you take off and don't want to say much to anyone about what happened?"

"Listen I really would just rather forget that whole night." he replied.

"Damn it, Damon! We need some answers here, so either come out and say it or we'll deal with things the hard way." Stefan got in his face.

Damon finally relaxed his face and looked over at me.

"Fine. They managed to get into the house without anyone knowing, I guess they had their own little witch to do some voodoo on the house and themselves so they wouldn't be seen. Apparently we never thought of that scenario. They got in, she finally invited me in and I killed them."

"And?" Stefan goaded.

"And what? That was it!" Damon sat down on the chair in the corner of the room.

"Damon you vamped out once you saw her blood. What the hell man you're 168 years old, you couldn't control your blood lust and told her to get out and then took off!" Jeremy was getting loud again.

"Fine. While they were in the house they mentioned something about her blood..." he began.

"Yeah we know, they were working with it for a cure. Get on with it Damon." Stefan chimed in.

"No, that's not what I'm talking about. They said her blood wouldn't do anything about a cure. There's something different about her blood. Trust me, I can verify."

"What does that mean?" I asked, completely confused at the conversation that was happening.

"It must have something to do with not being able to be compelled...and whatever else I'm sure will pop up with you. Your blood is …...the smell of it is intoxicating I can't even describe it. I'm betting those guys got a taste from your dad's lab and couldn't help themselves and tracked them to their house and that's why they killed them."

"...you have got to be kidding me. Is this a joke?" I felt like I was saying that so often. But I mean honestly...he couldn't be serious!

"It's no joke. Look I'm sorry I freaked you out, but if you stayed there I'm not sure what I would have done. And I left because I couldn't figure out what the hell happened and needed some time to think."

"Jesus this is just perfect. First my parents are killed, now I find out I have ~special~ blood. Tell me again why I'm staying in this goddamn town? None of this shit would have happened had I not moved here!" my voice was rising.

"You're staying here because you have your friends. We're still your family, you know. We all still love you and want you here." Jeremy held my hand. The _love_ word threw me for a loop for a minute, but I quickly realized he meant it in a friend way and nothing more.

"I have plenty of friends outside of Mystic Falls." I replied.

"Yeah well how many of them are here, now?" Caroline actually chimed in.

I was surprised by her response but she was right. None of my old friends had bothered much with me since i'd moved here, aside from a few phone calls after my parents died and the occasional email.

"Okay well now that that's settled, we have to figure out our next step here." Stefan said.

"Should she stay with all of us at the boarding house? We could watch her that way." Elena asked.

"There's enough rooms in there I think we could set one up for her." Caroline agreed.

A few more of them jumped on the plan of me moving into the boarding house without even asking me and finally I had heard enough.

"Listen, I'm not moving into the boarding house! I'm staying at my house!" I yelled over them.

"How else are we going to figure out how to keep you safe? You'd be best if you stayed with us! We could keep an eye on you!" Jeremy told me.

"Jesus you guys, she just said no! She's not a child, you can't force her to move if she doesn't want to." Damon shot out, surprising everyone.

"Damon, it's probably the best way. How else can we keep her safe?" Stefan turned to face Damon.

"We'll figure out another way! I think she needs some rest, we should all leave." Damon replied.

"Damon's right" Elena finally gave in "Vi we'll let you get some rest. They're letting you out tomorrow, who would you like to be here to pick you up?"

I thought about it for a few minutes. The only two people I knew wouldn't scold me were Matt and Damon. And I knew Matt was working tomorrow...ugh, of course.

"Damon." I replied, and everyone just stared in silence.

"Well you heard the woman. Let's all go and let her sleep." Damon walked out the door.

Everyone else came over and said their goodbyes and gave me a hug. Jeremy asked if I wanted him to stick around, and if maybe he could pick me up. I told him I was fine and Damon driving me home would give me more time to rest since we probably wouldn't be talking. I think he was nervous that Damon would try something again after the whole blood incident, but I really didn't care at this point.

After everyone left my mind was reeling. Was I even safe here in the hospital? I'd hoped that Mystic Falls Hospital security was halfway decent, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep.

I buzzed the nurse and she quickly responded. I fibbed a bit, telling her that I was in pain again in hopes that she'd give me some more paid meds. She just smiled and handed over some pills and told me to try and get some rest. It didn't take long after taking the pills for me to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

I slept all night which felt great. I knew they were discharging me early so I got a head start on packing things while the nurses gave me all the paperwork and a script for more pain medicine in case I needed it. I thought it was kind of strange to give me pain meds for a cut on my arm...do they just hand this stuff out to everyone that comes in this place? But then I reminded myself I may have some trouble sleeping after this mess so it was best not to question it. I took all the paperwork and smiled at them.

"Well well well...already up and ready to get the hell out of this place, aren't we?" I turned around to see Damon standing in the doorway.

"You're early. I thought you weren't coming for at least another hour. Are you wearing the same clothes from last night?"

"Yeah well, the security around here is shit, so I stayed just to make sure none of those assholes would find you again."

Odd. Why was he being so nice? God I hope it has nothing to do with the blood thing. I wasn't about to become his personal blood bank.

"Uhh...thanks?" was all I could manage.

"No problem. Are you finished? We should get going. Bonnie's finishing up some more spells for the house and Matt pulled some strings with an uncle that works at this geeky computer store and was able to set up some better security around the house. Some cameras and stuff."

"Yeah I'm all packed." I replied "Cameras? Like inside my house? I don't think i'm comfortable with that."

"Don't worry, no one is going to see you walking around the house naked." he smirked "He set them up outside so we can see if anyone comes in or out that shouldn't be there.

"Lovely" I sighed "Let's go."

The car ride was fairly uneventful as I had hoped. No lectures about what happened the other night, no lectures on how I should have someone with me at all times to be safe. It was nice to just sit in silence. Although it did strike eerily similar to the car ride home from the last time Damon drove me home. From the party...when I found my parents. I quickly pushed that thought out of my head.

"Deja Vu?" he asked, practically reading my mind.

"Yeah a little. But i'd rather have you driving me home anyway." I told him.

"Because you want to get in my pants?" he joked.

"Because you're the only one who stood up for me and doesn't treat me like a child." I replied.

"Yeah well, the others mean well. They just think you're a fragile little human. And with that blood of yours they're even more afraid for you."

We pulled up to my house and Damon brought my bags in and set them in the living room.

"Thanks I appreciate it. I'm sure I'll be getting a drop in from someone soon enough. You don't have to stay."

"I'll stay If you want me to. I don't have anything better to do."

For some reason this was turning out to be really uncomfortable and I couldn't exactly pinpoint why. Again I went back to him the other night when he smelled my blood and looked like he wanted to kill me. I still wasn't one hundred percent ok with him being completely alone with me, especially in my house after that happened.

"No really, I'm fine. I'll just veg out on the couch and watch some Buffy reruns or something.

He chuckled at that "Ahh yes, the vampire slayer. Jeremy could learn a few things from her. Well, on that note, I'll take off. Enjoy the silence while it lasts. I'm betting you'll be getting a phone call in 10 minutes or so." he walked towards the door.

I smiled and replied "I'm betting more like five. Bye Damon." and shut the door behind him.

Turns out I was right, within 5 minutes Elena called and insisted on a "girls night" with Caroline and Bonnie. I initially wanted to turn down the offer, but it really would be nice to hang out with just the girls for once.

They showed up within 15 minutes and we ordered pizza and just hung out and talked. It was nice. It felt like we were almost normal people for a while. Talking about guys, food, classes, tv shows. I wished we had more times like these.

"So waaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute" I interrupted Caroline "you slept with Damon?"

"Ugh, yes. Not my finest moment. Besides I didn't know he was a vampire or that whole compulsion thing before it happened. Though he never did compel me to sleep with him. I was a willing participant...and I want to slap myself for it now!"

"But now you're with Tyler. From a vampire to a werewolf, geez! Okay okay...so I'm dying to ask. Who was better...the vampire, or the werewolf?" I couldn't believe I actually asked that question but I was just having a fun time with the girl talk.

Everyone laughed and Caroline turned beet red.

"Well...Tyler can be, intense. Damon just sort of...knew what buttons to push, if you know what I mean!"

We all cracked up, but Elena turned the conversation pretty quickly.

"Okay okay gross. Waaaaaaaaaaaay too much information Caroline!"

I was DYING to ask Elena 'So...who's the better one out of the Salvatore's?' but then again I swore myself to secrecy so I couldn't ask that out in the open.

"You know, Jeremy can be pretty great too." Bonnie started He does this thing with his..."

"OHMYGOD BONNIE I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR WHAT MY BROTHER DOES WITH ANY OF HIS PARTS THANK YOU!" Elena put her hands over Bonnie's mouth immediately.

Caroline and I cracked up laughing at the two of them.

"Oh my god we are all seriously messed up." I laughed. Although I wanted to pipe in and agree with Bonnie and say I knew exactly what she was about to say, but I kept that quiet too. All of these secrets, I hope they stayed with me and that I wouldn't accidentally spill the beans at some point. I really enjoyed the company of these girls. And tonight was so much fun. We all wound up passing out on the couches in the living room while watching tv.


	11. Chapter 11

The next few weeks went by without any more incidents and life seemed to return to normal. The semester was almost over and we were all busy cramming for exams so things were pretty busy, but thankfully in a good way.

Stefan had been worried that the four vampires that attacked me had told someone else about the blood, or had maybe even been working for someone else to find it. He was vigilant about keeping an eye and ear out but he had heard nothing.

Secretly I was hoping that it was all over, and that those four guys were the only ones that knew about it all. It could be possible, right? I mean, just because they were vampires doesn't mean they were smart.

Jeremy had been over quite a bit studying with me, and kept going on and on about how great Bonnie was and how much closer they've been lately. We always danced around the subject of us having sex, it was never brought up but it was always the elephant in the room. I was finally beginning to make myself believe that it was just a mistake on his end, and that he really did love Bonnie. And Bonnie was a good person, I liked her. I really didn't want to be jealous of her. But the sad fact is that I was jealous of her. I was still in love with Jeremy. And every day it just grew more and more. And it hurt worse and worse every day that he told me they were getting along so great, and that they had all of these plans for the summer. He didn't elaborate but he just seemed really excited about it all.

Through all of the jealousy, I was happy and excited for him too. He really did seem happy and I liked seeing him that way. He was still my best friend out of everyone. I was able to talk to him about a lot of things I couldn't talk to the others about. Being afraid and scared and lonely. He was able to relate too, with losing his parents. It was nice to have someone there to talk to. He even backed off from being so overprotective and just started acting like a friend. Always wanting to hear about how my day went or what plans I had for the weekend.

I had frequent visits from everyone else too, which they all said they just wanted to "hang out" but I knew when it came to Tyler and Matt it was more so to watch over me. Tyler finally stopped giving me those _looks._ I'm sure Caroline had plenty of conversations about that. But it was still awkward when he came over. We never had anything to talk about and he would just wind up watching tv.

Matt at least put some effort into conversations, though I didn't know much about football teams nor did I care. But it was sweet of him to try at least.

Exams finally came and went and it was a relief to have summer finally here. Just to sit and relax and not worry about projects and tests and memorizing everything. I was so ready to just hang out at the lake most of the summer and get a tan and just have fun.

I even agreed to have a dinner party at my house Friday after everyone's final exams were over with. It was more of a potluck, really. Everyone brought a dish and I cooked a few things as well.

The dinner went great and it seemed like everyone was having a great time and we were all relaxed. The memories of what had happened in the past few months were so far away from all of us, and we just wanted to have a good time.

Once the food was finished Caroline and Elena helped me clear the table and we all wound up hanging out in the living room. The subject turned to relationships and how to handle fights and make up sex. I felt a little out of the loop but I would chime in here or there.

"There's actually something I want to talk about, with relationships." Jeremy began "Bonnie and I have been through some rough times. And through it all she's always been there for me. I don't know where I would be without her now. She's made me the man I am today..." he pulled Bonnie close to him.

I was getting anxious all of a sudden. Where was this going?

"I don't think I could live another day without her. So what I'm getting to here is..." he knelt down on one knee and brought out a box "Will you marry me?"

Everyone gasped as they saw things unfold. Bonnie, through tears, said yes and pulled Jeremy up for a kiss.

What the hell just happened? Jeremy seriously proposed to Bonnie? In my house!? He's going to marry her?

I said nothing, I just stood there. My entire body went numb and the glass I was holding in my hand slid and shattered on the floor.

"I...I'm sorry. I'll clean it up." I replied

"Don't worry about it, I'll get it. I'm sure you girls want to celebrate anyway." Stefan said as he walked to the kitchen.

Jeremy walked over to me "Are you ok? You look a little pale."

"I-I'm fine! I'm great! I'm really happy for you guys! I just wish you would have told me!" I lied. Well...about the being happy part, anyway.

"I know. I wanted to. But I was afraid if I told anyone they'd talk me out of it. Say we were too young and it wouldn't work out."

Stefan came back into the room and managed to clean up the mess fairly quickly and I thanked him for it.

"Well...this calls for a celebration, then!" I put on a fake smile "I have some champagne in the fridge, i'll go get that and some glasses."

I barely made it to the kitchen by the time the tears started rolling down my face. I stood at the kitchen sink trying to compose myself. I couldn't believe it. He was getting married. Why did I never tell him how I felt? Would it have changed something? Maybe he would have told me he felt the same? Or maybe he would have said he didn't have those feelings for me. Either way I was mentally kicking myself for not saying anything to him. And now it was way too late.

"You ok?" I heard Damon's voice behind me.

I quickly wiped my tears away and fumbled to the cupboard above the sink where the glasses were.

"Yeah I'm fine. Just looking for the glasses."

"Liar." he replied.

"What did you just say to me?" I turned to face him.

"I said you're a liar. You fooled everyone else, but you didn't fool me."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I walked past him towards the fridge to grab the champagne.

"You think I don't know? You're in love with him. You've been in love with him. I'm not sure if it happened when you slept with him or before or after that...but it happened. And it's killing you, I can see it."

"Damon I can't...wait, how did you know I slept with him?"

"I happened to be walking past the room and heard you." he moved closer towards me "and judging by the noises you made, it sounded like you were having quite a good time."

I couldn't believe what he was saying. What the hell was his problem? He knew I was in love with Jeremy and was being this big of an asshole to me?

"You know what Damon, fuck you." was my response as I walked back into the living room with the glasses and champagne.

I went up to Bonnie and congratulated her. She looked so happy and I didn't want to bring her down. It wasn't her fault how I was feeling, and she'd always been great to me.

Everyone was so happy and celebrating, drinks were flowing. I made sure I ignored Damon for the rest of the night and avoided any possibility of being alone in a room with him.

They all left well past midnight. I cleaned up the living room and kitchen and then finally got a chance to sit down. Then it hit me, and the tears started flowing. I wished I could call someone, ANYONE, but I couldn't. No one knew about my feelings for Jeremy, except somehow Damon, and he was the last person I wanted to call and talk to after how he treated me.

I dragged myself up to my room and curled up in bed trying to control the sobs that were escaping me rapidly. I wound up crying myself to sleep that night, and instead of dreams I had nightmares where every one of my friends found their happy ending except for me. I grew old and died alone


	12. Chapter 12

The next morning I woke up with a wicked headache. Between all of the alcohol last night and crying myself to sleep I felt awful. I went into the bathroom to get some ibuprofen to take and looked at myself in the mirror. Holy shit, I looked like death! My eyes were bloodshot and red and puffy and my hair was a mess.

I was still miserable and hopped in the shower hoping it might make me feel a bit better, but all it did was make me tired again once I got out.

I'd missed a phone call from Jeremy while I was in the shower. I wasn't planning on calling him back today, and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I sent him a text, as well as Elena, saying that I had a hangover and was just going to sleep it off most of the day today. I'd hoped that they would just leave me alone and not bother me.

I feel asleep again for a few hours and woke up feeling slightly better than before. At this point it was already well into the afternoon and I decided that I should probably eat something. I fixed myself some leftovers from the night before and sat in front of the tv and ate while I watched. Terminator 2 was on and I thought it best to watch some kind of action flick instead of a romantic movie at this point.

Thankfully everyone left me alone for the day. I figured they all were probably getting over their hangovers as well and were in a state similar to mine. Well...except for the whole broken heart thing…..and okay maybe the vampires of the bunch weren't having as crummy of a day as I was.

I got up and grabbed my laptop and decided to try and reach out to some of my old friends. I sent a few emails to them. I still didn't want to talk over the phone but I thought maybe email wouldn't be so bad. I explained that a friend of mine here in Mystic Falls had just gotten engaged and, while happy for him, it made me a little sad that I still hadn't found someone. I'd had a few relationships before but nothing that great or serious, and I always felt like the odd one out with my old friends. History seemed to be repeating itself.

I felt like I stared at the computer screen for hours, just willing one of them to get back to me. FINALLY a new message popped up from my old friend, Julie. It read:

" _Don't get so down on yourself. You'll find someone. We'll have to get together soon. Miss you!_

 _Love,_

 _Julie"_

Wow Julie, really? That's all you could come up with? Haven't spoken in months and I get four whole sentences?

I closed the computer and went back to my room. I popped one of the pain pills I still had left. I just wanted to go back to sleep.

I drifted off and slept for the rest of the night without any dreams or nightmares.

I woke up the next morning feeling a bit groggy. Too much sleep and the pain pill were a crummy combo, but I forced myself to get up anyway. I knew I couldn't hide out again today. I had to put my best fake smile on and be prepared for whatever happened today.

As it was, Jeremy sent me another text again, this time asking me if he could stop by. He said he wanted to talk to me about something. Greaaaaaat. Just what I wanted! But I told him sure.

I quickly showered and changed and managed to look somewhat like myself. I checked my email again really quick to see if anyone else I sent the message to had responded. Nope. Not one. I could see they all had read it, but only one response? And a short one? Maybe had I mentioned that I was in the hospital they would have actually replied, but if that's what it takes to get a friend to bother with you I wasn't really into it.

The knock at the door startled me away from my thoughts. I opened the door and saw Jeremy standing there. He smiled at me and I just wanted to die.

I let him in and he walked over and sat on the couch.

"Come here, sit down. I want to ask you something." he told me.

I sat down across from him in the chair and waited.

"So...how are you doing?" he asked.

Really? I hope that's not what he came here to ask. And he most likely did not want to hear my actual response. I wanted to slap him and tell him that I DID think he was stupid for getting married so early. And that I loved him...i could be the one for him. I wanted to have kids and go on vacations and grow old with him. But I refrained.

"I'm good. Was there something you wanted to ask me?" I tried getting to the point.

"Yeah, so..." he cleared his throat "you know you're my best friend, right?"

"Right." I responded.

"Look I know we've been through a lot. That night with you and me...and then your parents, it can't be easy. But you never hold that against me. You are always there for me and I can always turn to you for advice about anything or tell you! I want you to know how important and special you are to me. And I wanted to know, since you're my best friend and all, if you'd be my Best Man? Or...well, I guess it would be Best Woman, right?"

Dear God, did he really just ask me to stand up for him at his wedding? What do I say? I can't say no, he'll wonder why! But if I say yes I don't know if i'll make it through the whole wedding without flinging myself between them and professing my love for him and begging him to marry me!

"Vi...you there?" he asked. I must have zoned out.

"Yeah I...uh, I'm flattered Jeremy, really. But wouldn't you rather have one of the guys, instead? Matt? Tyler? Stefan? Typically it's a guy who is the Best Man, you know."

"Yeah well nothing in my life is typical. Besides, I want you there with me on the happiest day of my life." he smiled.

"Yeah I'll do it." I replied "But don't expect me to throw you a bachelor party full of strippers and lap dances."

He laughed as he stood up. "Nah I don't need any of that stuff anyway. Just want my two favorite people there on my day. You and Bonnie." he hugged me.

"Elena isn't one of your favorite people?" I asked.

"She's my sister. There's a difference." he smiled. "Listen a bunch of us are going to the lake today. The weather is great, we'll probably hang out and swim or something. You wanna come?"

Immediately I wanted to say no. I wanted to sit at home and cry again all day and not have to deal with anyone. And also try and comprehend the fact that I was now going to be in the wedding of the man that I was in love with. But I wound up telling him I'd go. It would probably be better for me anyway to get out.

Jeremy left after I told him to give me an hour. I needed to collect myself first and then grab my bathing suit and some towels to bring with me. I hadn't gone to the lake since I moved back. My parents used to take me all the time as a kid. The thought stung a bit, knowing that we'll never have those family gatherings ever again. We didn't even have any living family members left for me to try and reach out to. I allowed myself to linger on the thought for another minute and then I got in the car and drove to the lake.

I was hoping for a fun and easy day with friends. I showed up and was happy to see everyone there EXCEPT for Damon. After his comments the other night he was the last person I wanted to see.

The next few hours were filled with a lot of laughs and generally a good time with everyone there. Tyler and Jeremy were knocking back a few beers and I was thankful to hear that Bonnie had agreed to give them a ride home, considering they were getting to the point of being tipsy.

The day stretched on to the evening and everyone was getting pretty tired. Elena tried talking us all into having another girls' night out, but neither Caroline or Bonnie were having any of it. Seemed like they just wanted to get back home as quickly as possible.

I was thankful. I really didn't think I could have handled a girl's night out with having to lie in front of all of them the entire time. Just not something I was looking forward to.

On my way home I heard my phone go off and glanced over. A text message from Damon. Honestly what could he have to say now? I grabbed the phone and looked at it quickly.

"I need to talk to you. Can I come by?"

Why the hell would I want to talk to him? After the way he treated me?

I sent him a quick response of "No I don't think so." and threw the phone back on the seat next to me.

I was proud of myself for yet again managing to be a complete bitch to him after his asshole move the other night, but that quickly disappeared once I pulled into my driveway and saw him sitting on my porch.

"Are you kidding me!?" I yelled as I got out of my car "You know this can be considered stalking? I'll call Sheriff Forbes! I have a funny feeling she'll be on my side!"

"Look...I'm not going to stay, I just wanted to talk, okay?" he held his hands up.

"What could I possibly talk to you about?" I was seething and he could tell.

"Okay, you're pissed. I get it. And I don't blame you. I was an asshole for what I said and how I acted the other night. I just wanted to come over here and tell you I'm sorry."

Damon...apologizing? This was definitely not like him. Something was off.

"You're apologizing to me? What gives?" I was suspicious.

"I just...I know you've been through a lot. I just feel kind of bad. I was the one who was always honest with you, and I sometimes talk before I think and that's what happened. I get it if you hate me, you wouldn't be the first person. But I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry, okay?" he seemed pretty genuine which again, was completely unlike him.

"Uhh...ok. I guess." I didn't know what else to say, really. We both stood there for a few moments in an awkward silence.

"Good so...you'll forgive me?" he finally asked.

"Give me some time to think about that, will you?" I was still not too sure about all of this.

"Fair enough." a small smile formed on his lips. "So I heard that Bonnie and Jeremy have set a date." he changed the subject.

"What? When did you hear that?" I hadn't heard anything.

"When you were all at the lake. You and the girls were swimming and the guys were talking about it."

"How would you know if you weren't even...you were spying on us?"

"No I was just watching from afar. By the way...i love that purple bikini you have. Very sexy."

"You are so gross I can't even..." was all I could respond with, but I did crack a small smile.

"The date is set for the end of summer." he replied.

"That's only a few months!" I croaked out.

"I'm guessing they're going to tell you all in the next few days."

I had to sit down on the steps for a minute. This was all getting way too real and I couldn't really handle it.

"Are you okay?" he sat down next to me.

"I'm not sure." I felt numb everywhere and couldn't even find the words to describe what I was feeling at the moment.

"Can I ask you a question, Vi?" Damon was being serious.

"Sure..." was all I could respond with, half listening to him anyway.

"Why haven't you told Jeremy about how you feel?"

Silence. I didn't say anything to him. I couldn't. If this wasn't something I could tell my best friends, why would I tell Damon? But I finally realized he probably was the ONLY one I could share something like this with.

"Because...he loves her. And she loves him. He doesn't love me, Damon."

"I get it." was all he said.

"Is that how it is with you and Elena?" I pressed.

"Me and Elen-what? She told you? She told you we slept together, didn't she?" he looked surprised.

"Well I think she needed to talk to someone about it. And she very well wasn't going to talk to Stefan about it." I replied.

"Yeah she told me she'd kill me if I ever said a word. Then she goes and blabs." he sighed.

"Don't worry I won't tell anyone your secret." Another small smile managed to form.

"I guess we both have secrets to keep then." he returned the smile.

"Look it's getting late. And I have to process all of this. I'm calling it a night." I turned to look at him "Thanks for the talk. It was...nice?"

"Yeah people are always surprised when that happens when I'm around for some reason. Get some sleep Vi, you're gonna need it."

"Goodnight Damon." I mumbled as I opened the front door.

"Goodnight Violet." he turned and walked away, heading towards his car.

I glanced at the clock as I walked into the kitchen to get a snack and realized it was getting pretty late. A small snack before bed would suffice and then I'd hit the hay. I had to figure out how to prepare myself for when Jeremy decided to drop the bomb on me that he was GETTING MARRIED IN A FEW MONTHS!

Unfortunately I didn't have much time. As soon as I finished eating my phone rang and It was him.

"Can I come over? There's something I want to talk to you about." he sounded excited.

"It's kind of late, Jer." I was hoping I could buy myself some more time here!

"Oh come on, Vi! I won't keep you up late, I promise! But I have to talk to you!" he pleaded on the phone.

"Fine Jeremy. But I mean it. I want to get to bed at a somewhat decent hour."

"Ok! Ok! I'll be right over!"

it didn't take long, he must have sped the entire way here. And I was right. He had come to tell me all about them settling on a date and a venue and even their honeymoon, which I thankfully was able to manage to steer into another topic so I didn't have to think too much about it.

He was so happy and excited that every few minutes I forgot what was happening and just enjoyed his presence and how happy he was. I knew I could never make him that happy, so I tried my hardest to set my feelings aside.

Again he talked to me about the whole "best man" thing and went down the list of who was to be in the wedding party. When I questioned the fact that Damon was nowhere to be found on that list he gave a simple response.

"He's tried to kill my friends and family and has even succeeded in doing so to some. No thanks. It's enough that I'm even allowing him to be there in the first place."

His answer made me laugh and agree with him. He kept true to his word and didn't keep me for very long.

I had ached to ask him to stay. Just stay the night! Maybe get some alcohol into us and maybe I could get the courage to tell him how I really felt! And maybe, just maybe it would change things! Or even if it didn't change anything, at least he would know! What I wouldn't give for one more night with him like that night all those months ago. Before my entire world turned upside down and changed on me.

But I didn't. I hugged him and he walked out of my door and drove back home. Back to where his fiance was waiting for him. I was mentally kicking myself afterwards for not telling him. What was my problem!? Why couldn't I tell him!?

This wedding was going to be a lot harder than I thought.


	13. Chapter 13

It had been a few weeks after all of the "wedding planning" had begun and I was still somewhat in denial. I went along with all of the planning and whatnot but I really wasn't paying too much attention. What kind of best man(err...woman) was I turning out to be? Not a very good one, clearly.

It was a cold and rainy afternoon considering it was in the middle of summer and for once everyone had their own plans for the day, so I was off the hook FINALLY with having to hear wedding talk. I had curled up in some comfy clothes on the couch watching a movie. I was still trying to steer clear of any kind of romance or chick flicks so I went ahead and put on Thelma and Louise. Who needs men, anyway!

Halfway through the movie I was beginning to nod off when there was a knock at the front door. Funny...I hadn't been expecting anyone. I checked my phone real quick to see if maybe someone called and I just hadn't heard, but there were no missed calls or texts.

I got up anyway and looked out the window and I saw Elena standing on the porch. I sprang off the couch to answer the door, wondering what she was doing here.

"Hey, Elena! What's up?" I asked as I opened the door.

"Hey...Violet! Good to see you!" she smiled back at me.

"So uhh...is everything ok? Did you need help wedding planning or something?" I asked. What an awkward conversation we were having.

"Wedding planning?" she laughed "No...no. I just wanted to come and see how you were doing!"

"Uhm...fine?" I was confused.

"Just wanted to hang out...if that's okay? Can I come in and talk? It's pouring out here" she asked.

"Uhm, yeah sure. Come on in." I responded opening up the door and letting her in.

She took a few steps into the hallway as I closed the door and then just stood there staring at me.

"You know...you look like your mom." she finally spoke.

"Okay..." was all I could respond. Why the hell was she bringing this up?

"I wonder if you'll have that same look that she had on her face when she was about to die..." a smile formed on her lips.

"Elena what the fuck-" was all I managed to get out before her hand swung out and struck me in the face and all I saw afterwards was blackness.

I woke up later with my head throbbing and my body slightly shivering. It was cold and dark and I had NO CLUE where I was or how long I'd been asleep for. What the hell had happened? Was that a dream that I had with Elena? Is this a dream?

I tried to get up but my vision blurred as I did and I only just managed to catch myself before I fell flat on my face.

"Easy there, little girl. I hit you pretty hard, you might even have a concussion." I looked up to see Elena standing over me.

"Elena what the hell is going on!? Is this a joke? It's not funny!"

"Two things. One, I'm not Elena. And two, no this isn't a joke. Although it is kind of funny, at least from where I'm standing." she smiled from above me.

"Not...Elena? What are you talk-wait. Wait I remember...you're Katherine, aren't you? The doppelganger." my face must have shown how shocked I was.

"Awww they still all talk about me, do they? That's sweet. I knew they didn't hate me as much as they said they did!" she squealed.

"What the hell do you want?" I finally spat out.

"Oh sweetie, you didn't think those bunch of buffoons I sent after you months ago were the ones who wanted you, did you? They work for me. Or well...WORKED for me, before Damon killed them." she paced around me.

"That doesn't answer my question. What do you want?" I was finally able to push myself up to a standing position.

"Your father and his friends were working on a cure. They wanted to try and reverse us back. Humans. Why the hell would we want that? Anyway, they thought it was your blood. By the way, it's not. But your blood is something else, that's for sure. I don't want anyone else trying to do experiments on myself or any of _my_ family...so before someone starts again, I'm going to end it.."

"So what are you gonna do? Kill me?" I replied.

"That's the plan sweetheart.." she smiled.

"Are you serious?"

"One Hundred Percent." she kept pacing.

"I can't be the only one out there. There has to be more people like me. So killing me won't do you any good in the long run. Just one of many." I was stalling. I wasn't even sure if what I was saying was true but I had to figure a way out of here.

"Oh sweetie...I've been killing your family members for generations. You're the last one standing now."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Is this why none of the family was left? I was the only one? They'd let them live long enough to have kids and then just kill them off?

"But that doesn't make sense. Wouldn't there be extended family or something?" my voice was raising.

"Killed. Every last one of them. I didn't think you'd have the guts to go to that stupid party, I didn't plan on you not being there. Or your friends helping you out. But I've got it covered."

This was all way too much for me to take in at once. My feet finally gave out and I fell to the floor, bracing myself with my arms.

"How long have I been here?" I asked her.

"Two days. I've left notes and text messages for your friends pretending to be you. They won't be looking for you, at least not for a few more days. And by that time you'll be dead and I'll be long gone." she smiled.

"Why don't you kill me now?" I asked, my voice hoarse.

"Because, I want you to suffer a bit first. Besides I can't exactly spill your blood myself...not with how good it tastes. I'm bringing in some reinforcements. Now...get some rest!" she smirked as she walked out the only door that led into the room.

And there I was, left alone in a room with no windows and one door. I began searching the room to see if there was another way out, but there was nothing. The only other door in the room led to a small closet that had enough space for a toilet, a sink, and a very tiny stand up shower.

There was no food, anywhere. Was she trying to starve me out? What good would I be to her then? But then I remembered that you can live off of water for at least a few days, and that's all she said we'd be here for, right?

Time passed very slowly in the room. There wasn't much else aside from a cot, a blanket, and a lamp. I eventually fell asleep and woke up sometime later, still not sure how much time had passed. I had NOTHING to do or keep me occupied and the door hadn't opened for what seemed like ages. I tried my best to keep some sort of timeframe for how long I had been there but it was useless. With no doors or windows I couldn't tell.

I paced around the room most of the time and went and grabbed some water from the sink, trying to quench my thirst. But it did nothing to help the hunger pangs I had in the pit of my stomach. Was this how she was going to torture me? Make me starve to death in here? How long did they say it takes to die of starvation? I had water so I knew it would help me last a little while longer but how much longer?

I fell asleep again and was woken up by the door opening. I didn't know how long I'd even been asleep but I was so groggy when I woke up. It had to have been at least three days now since I ate something and it was starting to catch up with me.

I saw Damon standing in the doorway. His face was a mix of surprise and relieved.

"Thank god!" he rushed over towards me "Are you okay? Did she hurt you?" he knelt down and grabbed my hands.

"I haven't eaten in a few days but otherwise, no I'm fine." I mumbled, still groggy and almost wondering if it were a dream. But I reminded myself had this been a dream, Jeremy would have been the one saving me, not Damon.

"We've been looking for almost a week! After a day of not hearing from you and you not answering your door everyone started to worry. I was finally able to have someone rat on Katherine and I found you."

"Dare I ask how you managed to coax it out of the person that she was back?" I questioned.

"I beat the shit out of him. Now we have to leave, quickly." he began to help me up but faster than I could blink a blur shot across the room. It was Katherine entering the room and stabbing Damon with something she had in a syringe.

"Son of a bitch." he croaked out just before he fell to the floor unconscious.

"What the hell did you just do?" I dropped to the floor next to him trying to wake him up.

"Vervain. Didn't they tell you? It's like poison to us vamps. Well most of us, anyway. I've grown to become intolerant to it. Don't worry, it won't kill him. This is actually working out better than I had planned." and as fast as she came in she left.

It was some time later that Damon finally started moving and rolled onto his side, opening his eyes. Still alive but he looked like shit.

"Damon...Damon are you okay?" I knelt beside him

"Aside from feeling like death warmed up, yeah I'm fine. That bitch is going to pay for this." he managed to prop himself up into a sitting position against the wall.

Between me being without food for days and the vervain taking effect on Damon we didn't speak much, both of us fell in and out of consciousness.

At one point the door opened again and Katherine waltzed in, holding onto a tray of food. I couldn't even tell what it was, but it smelled delicious.

"Eat up, you'll need your strength." her voice was so cheerful.

I didn't even notice her walk out the door as I was devouring the food.

This went on for what I assumed was a few more days. Two or three, I couldn't tell. But I was finally starting to feel better, getting my strength back. Granted it wasn't much compared to the two vampires I'd been around for the past few days but at least my mind was in better shape.

"Damon, we have to figure a way out of here. You're really starting to look terrible." I remarked. His whole body had gone completely pale and he was clammy and shaking.

"Well thanks that makes me feel even better." he retorted.

"Damon I'm serious. We have to get out of here. I don't understand what the hell she's doing."

"You really don't get it? Come on...you're smarter than that." he said. "She's finally started feeding you and I'm now the one being starved out. Put two and two together."

I hadn't even thought about that. I forgot that vampires need blood and not just food to survive. I tried making him eat and he'd take a few bites here and there but it didn't seem to help, not the way it had helped me. How could I have not caught on sooner!?

"She wants you to kill me." I sat back on my heels and took in what I had just said out loud.

"Bingo. I don't think she thought I would last this long with you in here as the only food source. That bitch can kiss my ass." he huffed out.

"Ugh you are so stubborn Damon I swear you haven't changed a bit." Katherine quickly opened the door and walked in, followed by a man I hadn't seen before. He didn't say a word as he walked behind her, his eyes stared ahead, slightly glazed over.

"I give you a perfectly good meal here, the best blood that you've probably had in all your undead years or so I've been told, and all you do is sit here and grow weaker and weaker? I'm disappointed. I thought I knew you better." she cupped his hands to her face.

It was such an awkward situation. She looked like Elena, sounded like Elena, but definitely didn't act like her. And she was almost two seconds away from kissing him, all the while me and this other guy just sat and watched the scene play out. Well...i guess I watched, he still stood there staring off into nothing.

"You don't know me, Katherine. Now fuck off." he gave her a shove.

It wasn't enough to get her far, but it sent her stumbling back a bit, a loud gasp escaping from her.

"You know what...now I don't even feel bad at all. You can rot in here. You'll kill her and then you'll come back to me. You always do, Damon." she walked out the door, leaving the random dude still staring off into space.

"Hey!" Damon yelled out to him "Hey! Boy toy! You're mistress just left, I suggest you do the same!"

Once the door shut it was almost like the sound flicked a switch in the man standing there. His gaze turned towards the two of us, and he quickly walked over.

"I'm sorry! She made me!" he quickly spat out but cut himself off. Faster than I could have imagined he pulled out a pretty big knife from his pant leg and grabbed my arm, cutting a pretty big gash in it.

I screamed out as the pain shot through me, trying to take my arm back but his grip was strong and the blade just went deeper. Still holding onto my arm with one hand he brought the other one up to his mouth and drank something quickly.

Damon had finally gotten to his feet and grabbed the guy, pulling him off of me and sinking his teeth into him. As quickly as his fangs entered the man's neck, he retracted them and spit out the blood he had in his mouth.

"Fucking vervain of course that's what you just drank!" Damon yelled at the man, then he spun him around and snapped his neck. The body fell to the ground with Damon quickly following, all of his energy now practically spent.

I was horrified by the site in front of me! The last time something like this happened Damon had killed vampires who were trying to kill me. This time around the guy was human. Still tried killing me, but for some reason it just felt different. He had been what...compelled?

I was trying my hardest to keep my focus but I was losing a lot of blood. He must have nicked a vein or something because it wasn't stopping!

"You might...want to stop...that blood somehow." Damon panted. He backed himself into the furthest corner of the room, his eyes completely black now and his fangs sticking out.

I kept trying to put pressure on the cut but my hand kept slipping. There was so much blood!

Damon threw his shirt over towards me telling me "tie it around your arm" and I tried but it was still no use. And as I looked up he was starting to crawl closer and closer towards me.

"Now …...now Damon come on. Don't lose it now. This is what she wanted! Just...just try and...fight it please." I was starting to panic. I was feeling dizzy and trying to keep myself from falling asleep.

"You smell so good I can't...I don't think I can stop." he kept getting closer until he was practically sitting on top of me.

"Damon please...don't!" I begged, the world starting to turn black around me.

"I have a plan...trust me, okay?" he whispered in my ear. "I won't let you die, but I just need to do this."

My vision was almost completely gone as he said those final words but then another type of pain shot through my arm and I cried out. I quickly looked down to see Damon feeding off of my arm and began to panic as I felt myself finally slipping.

"Oh no you don't." he pulled his face away from my arm and bit down on his own wrist, then shoving it up to my mouth.

I had no idea what was happening and I couldn't fight what he was doing. I was so weak and I could feel all of my energy and life rushing out of me, so I just let it happen. I felt his blood enter my mouth and I involuntarily swallowed, which I wish I wouldn't have. It was far from pleasant tasting but I was still so weak I couldn't even begin to care.

He whispered into my ear "Don't move. Stay there. Keep your eyes shut." but even if I wanted to I didn't think I could. I didn't feel as close to death as I had been just moments before but it wasn't much of a difference.

I'm not sure how long we stayed that way. He didn't say anything and I just layed there, too tired to do anything.

A while later I finally heard the door open but was still too frail to move and I didn't open my eyes.

"Well well well...I see you really haven't changed as much as I thought Damon. I knew if I left you in here long enough that you'd end up killing her. Wasn't exactly my plan but I guess it worked out. Such a pity though...she smells delicious." Katherine's voice

"Well you know me, Katherine. Once a vicious killer, always a vicious killer. Don't worry, I saved you some." I could hear the grin spreading across his face.

So this was the plan? They were both going to kill me? I tried to protest, to move, to do SOMETHING but my entire body was too heavy and my brain was too foggy. I could barely concentrate on what they were saying let alone try and form an entire coherent sentence or move.

"Aww that's so sweet of you. I knew you missed me." a small laugh escaped her

"Damon I...what are you doing …...Damon!" she was panicking for some reason, I tried again my hardest to move but again I couldn't do anything. My damn body wasn't working with me and it was pissing me off! Next thing I knew I heard a loud crack, a ripping sound, and then a thud.

I heard a shuffle and then I was being lifted up and held by someone, the familiar feeling of blood in my mouth again.

"Drink a lot more this time." I heard Damon's voice again.

As I drank I felt my energy finally come back and I was able to move and think again. When he thought I'd had enough he pulled his wrist away again and grabbed onto my shoulders and looked me in the eyes.

"Are you okay? I thought I'd lost you for a minute there." his face showing how alarmed he was.

"I'm fine, thank you. I thought..." I trailed off, looking over to the spot where I had heard two voices earlier and saw Katherine's body on the ground...her neck ripped clean off of her body.

"You...you killed her?" I gasped out in shock.

"Yeah...it appears that way." was all he replied with.

The door opened yet again but this time it was filled with familiar faces. Stefan, Elena, Bonnie, and Jeremy ran into the room. Their faces were a mix of confusion and elation. Jeremy quickly noticed all of the blood on the floor from my wound earlier and told Elena and Stefan to wait outside, and also told Damon to get out.

Bonnie took them all out the doorway while Jeremy rushed over to me and wrapped himself around me.

"Oh my god, are you okay? I was going crazy because we couldn't find you!" he was almost sobbing.

"Jeremy...Jeremy I'm ok, I swear!" I held onto him tightly, not wanting the moment to end. It felt so good being wrapped up in his arms!

"Oh god there's a lot of blood...what happened?" he pulled away and looked around the room. "Did...did Damon kill Katherine?!" he was shocked.

I told him the short version of the story and added at the end that I was ready to leave.

"Of course! Let's get the hell out of here." he picked me up and actually carried me out.

When we came out of what was apparently a basement we were in an abandoned building of some sort and walked through it to get outside. The sunlight made me flinch since I hadn't seen it in over a week,, and I grabbed onto him even tighter. My body was almost back to normal but I was being somewhat selfish and enjoyed him holding me in his arms. He carried me all the way to the car and we all drove back to my house.

The group only stayed for a little while, mostly just wanting to make sure I was ok and back to normal. They asked a lot of questions but didn't prod. Most of them just seemed surprised that Damon had actually killed Katherine without hesitation considering he pined away for her for over 100 or so years.

"That bitch had it coming after what she put Stefan and I through for all of those years and now trying to kill one of our friends. I'm not the least bit upset that I killed her. Good fucking riddance to be honest." he told them all.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The next few weeks turned into months, and everything was a total blur. Dress fittings, makeup and hair trials, getting our nails done, helping them with their favors, listening to Jeremy drone on and on about his wedding vows.

I was surprised that I had made it through those months without completely losing my mind and snapping, but I somehow managed to keep it together during the day when everyone was there and save it all for at night when I'd cry myself to sleep. And then wake up and do it all over again.

Damon had actually been pretty decent with me. I guess since he knew what I was going through, he felt like we were kindred spirits and could make it through all of this together. He even told me at one point that with all of this wedding talk Elena and Stefan had brought up the subject. I stopped him from going on with the subject. If I felt so horrible about Jeremy and Bonnie being together for 50+ years I couldn't imagine how Damon felt thinking about Elena and his brother being together for eternity.

Finally it was time for the rehersal dinner on the night before the wedding. I was a MESS the entire day but I was able to play it off as just being nervous about being the "best man/woman" thing and having to give a toast in front of everyone. They all bought it thankfully and didn't ask me too many questions.

The open bar was calling my name but I knew I couldn't do it tonight. Of all days I could have told Jeremy I was in love with him, the night before his wedding was NOT a good one and I wanted to keep it that way. He deserved his happiness and so did Bonnie. Plus she was a witch and could probably kill me by just looking at me.

A few people gave their own versions of a toast at the dinner and with the drinks flowing and the laughter, everyone seemed to be happy and excited. Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie had smiles plastered on their faces the entire night. I made sure that anytime someone looked in my general direction I'd paste on my fake smile just so I wouldn't stand out from the rest of them.

The night was coming to an end and I had finally made it over to the bar for one drink. One to calm my nerves and make things a little more easier to deal with. Jeremy Gilbert...the man I love, was getting married tomorrow. To someone else. Who wasn't me. And I had to stand up there for him during his wedding. I deserved at least one drink tonight!

"Hey there, lush! Don't get too wasted on us now!" it was Damon sauntering over towards me "You've got a lot on your plate making sure the groom shows up tomorrow so don't wind up with a hangover tonight."

"Damon...this is my first drink." I scoffed at him.

"I know" he gave a small wink "Just go with it."

"Uhh...ok. Yeah you're right. Maybe I should stop now before it's too late!" I gave him a puzzled look.

"Maybe I should drive you home." he gave me a knowing look.

"Yeah. Maybe you should." I wanted to hug him right then and there for getting me out of the rest of the night early, but I managed to keep myself together and follow him out the door.

We walked to my car and got in. He began driving the route back to my house and he finally broke the silence.

"Keeping yourself sober so you don't wind up professing your undying love. I like your style." he replied.

"You knew?" I didn't even look his way.

"I've been there. Hell i'm practically the King of there. But you would have cracked. And I know you don't want that."

"Thank you, Damon." I sighed as the car pulled up to my house.

"You're welcome." he turned off the engine and turned to face me.

"Vi are you-will you be okay, tonight?" his voice was serious.

"Yeah I think so." I glanced over at him.

"Are you sure? I can stay here if you want." he was being sincere and it was actually a nice change for him.

"No Damon I think I'll be fine." was all I could say. I wasn't sure I would be, but I didn't want ANYONE to watch me fall apart.

"I don't feel right leaving you here alone." he placed his hand on my arm. A small shiver ran through me as his hand touched my arm.

"I'm serious, Damon. I'll be fine. And you know what? If I need to, I'll call you. I promise. Okay?" I wasn't sure if I had meant it, but I made It sound like it.

"Okay. I'll head home. Call me if you need me." he got out of the car and began his walk home.

I walked in and saw my dress for tomorrow hanging by the staircase. There it is. It wasn't ugly by any means. Bonnie was actually pretty adamant about not making us all look hideous and we were all grateful. But I couldn't help shake the feeling that I wanted to burn that dress immediately following the wedding.

I was so antsy for the rest of the night. I paced and paced and tried to watch tv or read something but I just couldn't focus. Was this going to go on all night? I was so wired! I tried taking a nice long bath and even that didn't help. And forget about sleep. That wasn't happening either, apparently. I was so nervous and antsy that I surprisingly didn't wind up crying or losing it, but I knew I needed to get some sleep. I decided to take a sleeping pill to help me at least get a few hours of sleep.

I sent a text to Damon, telling him I was okay but I was taking a sleeping pill just to get some rest. I asked if he would call me the next morning to at least make sure I was up in time to make it for the wedding!

"Sure thing. If you're not I will come there myself and get you dressed and ready to go! ;) " was what the text said.

Thankfully the pill worked fast and I was finally able to get some sleep.

The next morning I awoke a little groggy as my alarm clock went off, but managed to drag myself out of bed. It took me a good ten minutes after my morning routine to realize that today was the day. And immediately I went into panic mode.

I COULDN'T DO THIS! HOW COULD I WALK IN THAT PLACE WITH THAT DRESS ON AND ACT LIKE NOTHING IS HAPPENING!?

Should I text Damon? Tell him to come get me? Should I take off?

I let myself spazz out for a few more minutes before I was able to calm myself down. I realized I didn't have a lot of time and rushed out the door with all of my things to the boarding house. From there we would take a limo to get to the venue and get ready and going. As I got in my car I sent Damon a text telling him I was awake and on my way, and then pulled out of my driveway and headed off.

Thankfully most of the morning kept me busy and not able to dwell on everything. I had a lot to do and I bounced back and forth between the guys and the girls most of the morning. Who thought this best "woman" idea was a good one? It felt like way more work!

I threw on my dress and sat down in the chair to have my makeup and hair done, not knowing or caring what they did with it. Just wanting to keep up with the fast pace that was thankfully keeping my mind off of things. A few hiccups happened along the way which again, helped my mind off of things. The caterer got lost on their way and I had to call and give them directions, the officiant who was supposed to do the wedding got sick so I had to call in a replacement.

Everything happened so quickly that I barely had time to register that Bonnie was finally getting into her dress. I turned around after I got off the phone for what felt like the hundredth time that morning and saw her. She looked absolutely beautiful in her form fitting white gown.

I always thought Bonnie was pretty but she looked absolutely breathtaking in her wedding gown. The only urge at that moment I had was to go over and hug her. She looked so happy and beautiful and I couldn't take that away from her.

She broke the hug and grabbed each one of my arms.

"Do you think he'll like it?" she asked me, her voice giddy.

"He's going to love it, Bonnie!" was all I could say.

"Okay. This is where I leave you girls. Now it's time for me to head on over to the boys. I'll see you at the altar." I told them as I headed out.

Walking towards the other side of the building I was telling myself that this was a happy day. I should be happy! Two of my best friends are getting married! They love each other! They're happy together!

I kept this mantra up until I got into the room where the guys had gotten ready this morning and then I froze once I saw Jeremy.

You have not seen Jeremy Gilbert until you have seen him in a tux. James Bond has nothing on this guy. He looked GORGEOUS. I allowed myself a brief moment of imagining him in that suit doing all sorts of dirty things to me until he spoke up and ruined my fantasy.

"So? How is everything? Is Bonnie freaking out? How does she look? How do I look?" he was babbling.

"I uhh...Bonnie is fine! She's not freaking out. She looks beautiful, Jeremy." I smiled at him.

"Speaking of beautiful, you look amazing." he brought me into a hug and gave me a light kiss on my cheek.

"Now now, don't get any ideas there Jeremy! You're fiance is a strong powerful witch, no quickies for you before the wedding!" Tyler joked. To me it wasn't very funny but I tried to laugh at him anyway.

"Well...this is it." Jeremy said as we all lined up at the doorway. "Can you believe it? I'm getting married! Who would have thought?" he beamed as I fixed his tie.

"Certainly not me." I sighed.

"I just wish my parents were here." he sounded a little sad.

The comment came at the right time, because I was so close to breaking it wasn't even funny. My eyes began tearing up and he must have thought it was from the comment.

"Hey hey...don't get upset! All of the people I care about are here right now!" he handed me a tissue.

"No I'm fine. I'm sorry. I'm just...so...happy for you, that's all!" I tried wiping the tears away as best as I could.

The door opened and one of the wedding planners yelled that it was time for the guys to head on out.

"Jer, hey give me a minute. I need to fix my makeup. I'll be right behind you." I sniffed as he gave me another kiss on the cheek.

"Sure. No problem." he gave a small smile as he headed out the door with the rest of the guys.

Once the were gone I turned back around and headed towards the mirror that was on the wall across the room. I began dabbing at my face but then I quickly froze once I got a good look at myself.

This was it. I didn't think I could stand it! How could this have happened? How could I have let it get this far!? The man I'm in love with is about to marry some other woman all because I was too much of a coward to say anything to him!

The tears were flowing now and at this point I worked myself up so much I couldn't even breathe. I don't know how long I stood there in front of that mirror like that. The next thing I knew I looked up and saw Damon staring back at me through the mirror.

"They sent me to come look for you...said that you were in here fixing your..." he stopped talking once he got a good look at my face.

"Damon! Damon I don't think I can do this!" I turned around to face him "I can't do this! I think I'm having a heart attack!" I clutched at my chest where I felt an intense amount of pain and pressure. I couldn't breathe and I was beginning to feel dizzy. Was I dying? Was this how dying felt!?

He ran over to me and grabbed me and sat me down.

"Hey hey hey shhh..." he placed a hand on each side of my face "You're fine, okay? You're not having a heart attack. You can do this! You're strong! One of the strongest women I've ever known! It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay, I promise!" he was working hard, trying to console me.

"Damon please don't make me go out there!" I cried "Please I can't sit there and watch him get married!"

"You have to." he gently told me "There's nothing you can do now. You'll always love him, but you have to let him be happy. He wants you there by his side on the most important day of his life. You're still important to him. He still loves you, just in a different way. But you don't want to lose that, right?"

He was right. I HATED when he was right, but I had to give it to him this time. I couldn't lose Jeremy, even if he was just a friend for the rest of my life. I had to at least keep him around me in that sense. I'd rather have him as a friend than not in my life at all. And if I did this, if I bolted on his wedding day, I don't think he'd ever forgive me.

I stilled my sobs and calmed down. I turned around to the mirror and managed to fix myself up and pull myself together.

"Okay." I breathed out "Let's do this." I turned to look at him, grabbing his hand.

"Let's go watch the people we're in love with, be in the arms of someone else." he squeezed my hand and we walked together towards the ceremony.

I finally got in and ran over towards the guys who were standing at the altar, waiting.

"Hey...everything okay?" Jeremy whispered.

"Yep everything is great! Just some last minute things I had to take care of!" I tried keeping my voice calm.

A moment later the girls began walking down the aisle and all headed up towards the other side of the altar. It felt strange being on the side with all of the men, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Granted this meant that Elena was technically my "date" for the evening seeing as she was the maid of honor, but it was something trivial in the grand scheme of things.

The wedding song began and Bonnie walked down the aisle as everyone stared at her. She looked so happy and beautiful as her father walked her down. I stole a glance at Jeremy who was awestruck as she walked towards him. I couldn't help but shed a few tears. I wasn't quite sure why I was crying, seeing them so happy or realizing that this was it for any kind of chance at Jeremy, but I just let it be.

The ceremony was pretty quick. Bonnie had talked about not wanting to bore everyone to death anyway. During the moment when the officiant asked "If anyone has any reason why these two should not be wed speak now, or forever hold your peace" I wanted to shout out "BECAUSE I'M IN LOVE WITH HIM AND HE SHOULD MARRY ME!" but instead I kept quiet and stole a glance at Damon in the row right up front. He locked eyes with me and just gave me a quick wink. It helped enough to keep me grounded and quiet as they kissed and were announced as husband and wife.

The ceremony ended and everyone clapped and yelled and smiled. Afterwards we got in the limo and went out to get a few quick pictures for the photographers and then headed back towards the reception.

They had been doing shots and drinking beer in the limo but again I refused. I had that stupid speech I had to give and was nervous enough, I didn't need the alcohol making my brain any more fuzzy.

Everyone filed in pretty quickly to the reception. There were at least 150 people there which made things easier and harder at the same time. More people to stare at me as I gave my toast and hoped I didn't bumble my way through it, but then again I didn't know most of them so I guess it wasn't that bad.

I talked about knowing them as kids and what a great guy Jeremy always was and how he always talked about getting married and having a family of his own someday. I said that Bonnie was the light of his life and he always smiled when he talked about her. There were a few more sweet and sappy things I threw in there, and I finally ended the toast and was pretty proud of myself for getting through it without having a nervous breakdown.

Bonnie and Jeremy both got up and gave me a hug and a kiss while everyone that was there erupted in applause and cheers. Next it was Elena's turn but I tuned out right then and there. I saw the glass of wine sitting in front of me and I downed it in a few gulps, followed by the chapmage after Elena finished her toast.

By the time dinner ended EVERYONE was out on the dance floor. Except for me. I was still sitting at the head table. Alone and slightly buzzed. I told myself to get used to it, this was probably how it was going to be for the rest of my life. I was sitting there wallowing in my own self pity when another glass of wine appeared in front of me. I looked up and saw Damon standing there, holding onto a beer for himself.

"Here. You deserve it. Drink up, sister. It's a party." he downed the rest of his beer.

I gave a nod and picked up the glass, drinking about half of it in one gulp.

"Wow...I'd say something dirty about how much you can fit in that mouth of yours but I know you're not in the mood right now." he chuckled.

"Shut up and get me another one." I ordered, not caring how bitchy I was sounding.

He let out another laugh and went back to the bar and got another glass of wine for me. By the time he walked back with it I had finished the first glass he brought over.

I took a few sips out of it and set it back on the table.

"So..." he looked me up and down "I thought the bridesmaids dresses were supposed to make the girls look uglier than the bride. Not hotter than the bride." his eyes made their way back up to lock with mine.

"You're drunk." was all I could say.

"Vampires can't get drunk." he smirked.

"Well then I'm drunk." I replied.

"Yeah maybe a little bit. Come on. Let's dance, beautiful." he took my hand and pulled me out to the dance floor.

We danced together for most of the night, stopping only occasionally for a refill on our drinks. Slow songs, fast songs. It didn't matter. We stayed on that dance floor together and tried to pretend we were having a great time.

One particular slow song came on and we began slowing things down, dancing in each other's arms. I looked up at him and noticed him staring over at Elena and Stefan. They were staring at each other intensely, as if no one was in the room but them. Stealing a few lingering kisses with each other.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. Can't be easy with your brother being with her and her living in the same place as you."

His gaze quickly fell and landed on me.

"Not a huge deal. Why do you think I drink so much all the time?" he smiled.

"I thought vampires couldn't get drunk?" I asked.

"We can't. But it definitely helps numb the pain. Any kind of pain. Same as it does with humans. We just don't get a hangover the next day."

"Mind if I cut in?" it was Jeremy.

"Gilbert I'm flattered but you're not my type." Damon shot him a look while not letting go of me.

"Come on Damon, get lost for a few minutes, will you?" Jeremy shot back.

Damon gave me a worried look but I dismissed it.

"It's fine, really. I can't say no to the groom!" thankfully the alcohol was kicking in pretty good and I was on a high from it at the moment. Not worried about the crash that was going to inevitably come later on.

Damon left the dance floor but stayed in eye and earshot, probably to make sure I didn't start professing my undying love for Jeremy right then and there.

"So how's married life?" I asked him, my words slurring a bit.

"Well I've only been married for 6 hours so far. But I guess it's good." he chuckled "Are you ok? You've seemed nervous all night long." he brought me in closer to him as the song continued to play.

"I'm fine, Jeremy! Really!" I giggled as I tripped over him a little.

We danced for another minute but it was clear I was losing my footing way too much. He pulled me off the dance floor over to where Damon was standing, watching us the whole time.

"Damon, she's wasted. Will you get her home? Make sure she's okay?" Jeremy asked while still trying to hold me up.

"Yeah sure. No problem. Let's go." Damon was quick with Jeremy and practically scooped me up and walked me out to the parking lot and to his car.

"That was close" he said as he got in and began driving "I thought you were gonna spill your guts to him. Or spill your dinner. One of the two."

"I should have." I mumbled, beginning to feel tired.

"No, you did the right thing. Remember? Better off as a friend than nothing at all." he replied.

He didn't say much for the rest of the ride back to my house and I was grateful. I just wanted to sit in the silence and enjoy the buzz I had going on from the alcohol. Maybe I'd make it to bed before things took a turn.

"Here, I'll walk you in. You're still pretty unsteady." he got out and opened the door for me. I grabbed onto his arm and half walked, half dragged along up the stairs and into the house with him.

"Well...you should get to bed. You're gonna feel like shit in the morning so..." he began, but I cut him off.

"Stay with me." I pleaded.

"What?" a confused look spread across his face.

"Please Damon! Stay with me! I know I told you last night I was fine, and I was. But I don't think I can make it through tonight by myself. You're the only one who understands. Please stay here!"

"Of course I'll stay" he walked over and gave me a hug.

We both moved over towards the couch and turned on the tv. I was sprawled across him trying to concentrate on what was on. Some kind of infomercial but I really couldn't tell. My mind was spinning and my head was beginning to, too.

"How long have you been in love with him for?" Damon finally got my attention.

"With Jeremy? I dunno. I've always had a crush on him since we were kids, when I used to live here. I'm not sure if I consider that 'love' but I knew right when I came back here and saw him again..." I trailed off.

"And when you had sex with him?" he asked.

I was a little put off by the question but answered anyway.

"Yeah that was stupid, I know! Look I didn't know he was with Bonnie then. I would never do that to someone. I'm still pissed that he didn't tell me. Or that they were apparently 'on a break' or whatever. I thought...i thought that..."

"You thought that he had feelings for you." Damon finished.

"Yeah I did. I was stupid. To think that he would ever have those feelings..."

"You're not stupid!" Damon sat up and looked me in the eyes "Listen, that was his fault. He used you. And you still are pining away for him! I understand when you can't just stop loving someone, trust me. But you've gotta stop blaming yourself for this whole situation you're in. You're beautiful and smart, you could get any guy here in Mystic Falls or hell, even in this country. So stop letting him make you feel so bad about yourself."

It took me a minute to process everything he had just said. The words kind of tripped over themselves as I listened, the alcohol really starting to kick in at this point.

"You...you think I'm beautiful?" was the only thing I could reply to.

"I...well yeah, I think you are. Have you looked in the mirror lately?" his face got closer to mine and I could smell the whiskey on his breath.

I don't know WHAT possessed me at that moment but I wound up grabbing his face and kissing him. Wanting and needing SOMETHING, to feel anything but what I was currently feeling. We both moaned at the initial kiss and I pushed him back onto the couch while I straddled him, still in my stupid "best woman" dress, grinding down into the growing hardness I could feel forming in his pants. His hands were on my hips pulling and pressing hard, making the grinding I was doing even deeper and I could hear him groan at the feeling of it.

My hands immediately went to his belt and that's when he pulled my hands up and broke the kiss.

"Violet...Violet hey hey! We can't...you're drunk...I can't." his face was red and his hair was a mess.

We were both panting and staring at each other, eyes fixed together until finally I spoke up.

"You're right. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. Maybe I should go to bed." I got off of him and began walking towards the stairs.

"I'll take the couch, okay? If you need anything I'll be here." he stood and watched me walk up the stairs.

"Goodnight Damon." I said as I walked up the steps.

"Goodnight Vi." he breathed out as I walked away.

I walked into the bathroom, forcing myself to stay awake to at least take a shower and get all of the hairspray and god knows what off of me before I climbed into bed.

I kept thinking back to that make out session that almost went a lot further with Damon but I tried telling myself that it was just the alcohol. And that's also the reason why he probably said what he did, too. Right? I mean Damon loved Elena and also could have any other woman he wanted. Or maybe he felt bad for me and let that happen. All of this had to be the alcohol talking.

The room began to spin a bit when I got to my bedroom and I immediately fell into bed and into a sound sleep, thankful that for once I was able to fall quickly asleep.


	15. Chapter 15

Only a few hours had passed before I woke up with a SPLITTING headache and my stomach feeling like shit. I groaned as I got up, the room still slightly spinning and making me nauseous. I headed towards the bathroom across the hallway in search of some kind of pain killer to get rid of this damn headache. No such luck. I was completely out. Son of a bitch! How did I not realize?

I remembered mom used to keep some extra tylenol in the kitchen cupboard for when we ran out and was worried for a minute about going down there. I didn't want to wake Damon up, I was actually hoping that he would have been gone by the time I woke up in the morning and we could avoid any kind of awkward situation.

But my head was pounding away and I had no choice. I tip toed as quietly as I could down the stairs and into the kitchen. I was able to be pretty silent on my way there and wound up finding that extra bottle that my mother used to leave. SCORE! I popped the top open, but my hands were shaking and I dropped them all into the sink and down the drain. Every last one of them. And I wasn't sure if maybe it was my headache but it was the loudest sound possible at that moment.

I cringed at both the sound and at the thought of all those pills going down there and how my headache was just going to apparently run it's course.

I heard someone clear their throat which startled me and I jumped around and saw Damon standing in the doorway of the kitchen, wearing nothing but his briefs. Why didn't I offer him at least a robe or something?

"Ugh...sorry. I'm so sorry." I tried whispering "I was just looking for some tylenol. I didn't mean to wake you, sorry."

He chuckled a bit and walked into the room, taking the empty bottle from my hands and throwing it in the trash.

"It's alright. I heard you come down the stairs, anyway." he smiled.

"Oh man. I thought I was being quiet! I'm sorry, Damon." I wanted to tell him he could leave if he wanted to but my head was pounding even from the short amount of words I was using.

"It's fine. Vampire hearing, remember? Besides I can help you better than a bottle of aspirin will."

"What?" what the hell was he talking about?

"Vampire blood. Best hangover cure there is." he stood in front of me.

"You want me to drink your blood?" I eyed him.

"It's not as gross as you're making it sound I swear. Besides you've done it before"

"Damon...seriously stop talking about that. You're gonna make me throw up. Besides I was half dead at the time anyway I had no choice." I tried walking past him but stopped in my tracks as another shooting pain shot across my head and I clutched at it.

He turned again to face me and grabbed onto my arm.

"Geez, you okay? Seriously, it'll make you feel better quick I swear."

"Ugh...ok. But if I puke you're cleaning it up." I told him.

"Sounds fair enough." I watched him bite into his wrist and the blood well up. My stomach turned and I wasn't sure I would even make it as far as getting the blood into my mouth without hurling all over the place.

He brought his wrist up to my mouth and I finally gave in and drank the blood. Surprisingly it wasn't awful...which was completely weird of me to even think but I just went with it. After a good 30 seconds he took his wrist away and just looked at me for a bit.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, not breaking eye contact with me once.

"I'm...okay. Wow...you weren't lying about that, were you?" and it was true. The headache was gone and my stomach felt better. But as I tried to walk over towards the fridge to get a glass of water, the world began to spin rather quickly again and Damon shot out to grab me before I fell.

"Wow...head rush for a second there." I gasped out as he held me up.

"Yeah I forgot about that. Happens sometimes when you sober up too quick after drinking the blood." he was still holding me. "Better now?" he asked.

"Yeah I think so." I smiled.

"You've got a little right here..." he brought his thumb up to wipe off what I was assuming was some blood from the side of my lip. His finger brushed up against my lip and before I could think my tongue darted out to lick it off his finger. My heart sped up as he locked eyes with me and pushed his thumb into my mouth, his breath hitching as I sucked his finger.

"Are...are you sure you're sober? Completely sober?" he breathed out while pulling his finger from my mouth.

"Yes!" I nodded quickly, my breath was coming more quicker now.

"Fuck..." he groaned as he pushed me up against the fridge and crashed his lips into mine. My arms wrapped around him and pulled him tightly into me, wanting more of him. His hands were all over the place, grabbing my ass and my breasts through the tank top I was wearing.

His hand slid from my breast down to my waist and then between my legs. My panties were still on, he was rubbing light circles over and over again as I moaned loudly into his mouth.

"Damon...Damon please!" I begged him as he kept his pace.

His hand snaked under my panties and two fingers entered inside of me, pulling a loud moan out of me.

"Christ you're soaked already..." he groaned. He thrust them in and out a few times, each time my moans and gasps becoming louder.

He pulled me from against the fridge over towards the kitchen table. Throwing everything off at once, he shoved me down on the table and quickly did away with any clothing that was between us. My hands roamed across his chest and downwards grabbing at his hardness between his legs, earning a gasp from him.

"Are you sure?" he asked me breathlessly.

"Yes Damon please just...please!" I begged.

He grasped his thickness in his hand and guided himself into me, both of us moaning at the feeling.

His first few thrusts were slow and steady but he quickly picked up the pace as I grasped onto his arms while his movements became a little more rough. I was moaning and gasping loudly. I was never one to be quiet during sex. I just couldn't figure out how to be, when it always felt so good!

"Damon...oh fuck..." I cried out as he hit a particularly good spot.

I glanced up at him and began to pull him back in for a kiss, but he pulled his head away, shaking.

I looked at him and saw his eyes were beginning to go black and his fangs started to descend.

"I'm sorry it's just...god you feel so good!" he stilled his movements "I don't know if I can do this, fuck!" he was struggling.

I knew what he wanted. I knew it would be amazing. So I told him.

"Do it." I gasped out.

"What?" he was shocked. "You don't know what you're asking."

"Damon please. I know you want to bite me. .It." I told him, rolling my hips as I said the words.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his eyes growing an even darker shade of black.

"Damon I'm sure now stop talking and start doing it!" I was getting rather annoyed.

He snapped his hips forward, earning a loud gap from me, as he lowered his head down to my neck. Just before he bit down he angled my hips in a certain way and once he sank his teeth into me and thrust in I screamed out. The feeling was intense, my entire body was on fire. I didn't feel pain I only felt pure pleasure and couldn't stop myself from crying out his name and urging him on.

He was moaning so loud around my neck and I was starting to shake. I knew I wouldn't make it much longer if he kept this up, his tongue every once in a while darting out to lap up what had dribbled from the sides of his mouth and onto my neck and shoulder.

He finally pulled himself away from my neck and brought his face back to mine and kissed me deeply, his tongue thrusting in my mouth in time with the thrust of his hips. I was feeling a little woozy from the blood loss and he must have noticed, so he bit into his wrist again and fed me his blood. It was the most erotic thing, sharing blood together. As he took his wrist away I could tell there was blood still left on my lips, just as there was on his. He brought his lips to mine again and our tongues tangled in a bloody mess that was sexier than I ever thought it could be. I was so close and moaning his name so loud I knew the neighbors could probably hear.

"Damon oh god...i'm close...please just..." I gasped out as my body began to tense.

"Eyes on me gorgeous!" he whispered to me as his fingers found their way to my clit and rubbed quickly.

My orgasm ripped into me like never before. I almost felt as though I was high, my body was shaking and I couldn't stop screaming at first. He held onto me tightly and a moment later he slammed into me as his orgasm finally hit him, growling as his release spilled into me.

I thought it was just that one time thing. Or that we'd at least go back to bed afterwards, but he apparently had other ideas, and I wasn't complaining. It was like he couldn't get enough of me, and I felt the same about him. We had sex in every room that night, making our way upstairs. He would feed off of me, getting high off of my blood and in turn he would feed me his blood so I wasn't too weak to keep up.

He whispered dirty things to me as he kept going, every once in a while throwing in how sexy he thought I was. Where this came from I had NO idea, I was chalking it up to the blood high he got off of me but I just didn't want to think too much about it. That night, he helped me forget everything that had happened and just focused on the pleasure we were both receiving. We finally wound up in my room and we eventually fell asleep in the early morning hours, wrapped in each other's arms.

When I woke up I could tell it was already well into the afternoon. My body was slightly sore and I was a bit groggy, not remembering much right away. I glanced next to me and then remembered...Damon was in the bed next to me. That really happened? That wasn't some drunken hazed dream? Jesus I wonder if I can sneak out or something without him noticing?

I sat up slowly and tried to quietly leave the bed, but a hand wrapped around my wrist quickly and tugged me.

"Trying to avoid the walk of shame, are we?" he sleepily asked.

"I was just going to take a shower." I told him. It wasn't exactly a lie. But I was hoping that he'd at least wake up after I had showered, dressed, and gotten the hell out of my house.

"Sounds like a wonderful idea." he smiled and pulled me into the bathroom, shoving me in the shower and beginning another round of our sex romp. The warm water and slick soap made things even more sexier than it had been the night before, if that was even possible. This time though he didn't bite me, though there did seem to be a lot more dirty talk involved.

After we both reached our peak we finally got to the actual act of showering. We both laughed as we helped each other with washing off and we stole a few long, sensual kisses from each other.

We were so caught up that I hadn't heard the front door opening, and it wasn't until I heard someone calling my name from downstairs that I realized that someone was there.

"Shit! It's Elena!" I whispered, completely frozen in the shower. SHE CAN NOT BE HERE!

"How the hell did she get in your house?" he looked just as shocked as I was.

"Ugh...I gave her a key. I forgot!" I was so close to smacking myself it wasn't even funny.

"A key? She's a vampire too, you know. And you wouldn't even let me in your house a few months ago!" he shot back.

"Listen! She can NOT see you here! You stay up here, DO NOT MAKE ONE PEEP! And I will get rid of her and then when I come back up YOU HAVE TO LEAVE!"

"Fine. But you know where to find me!" he winked as I exited the shower.

I quickly threw a robe on and dashed down the stairs, hoping to god that she wasn't already making her way up the stairs. Thankfully she was still in the living room when I got down there.

"There you are! I was worried!" she looked somewhat annoyed.

"Worried? Why?" I tried wrapping the robe around me as tightly as possible and then I remembered the bite Damon gave me during our last round of sex before bed. He hadn't given me his blood at that point, so the bite mark hadn't healed! Keep it together Violet!

"Well I've been trying to call you all day! Why is Damon's car here? Did he spend the night?" she looked suspicious.

"Damon? What? No!" I tried to laugh but it came out more of a nervous chuckle "His car...he drove me home last night. I had a little bit too much to drink. Hence why I didn't answer the phone I was sleeping it off. Anyway...he drove me here and then I guess he left his car and walked home." oh man...would she buy it? It didn't even make much sense to me and I was the one saying it!

"He never came back to the boarding house last night. I just assumed he crashed here." she replied.

"Well no...he's not here. Did you need something?" I didn't mean for it to come out as rude as it did but I mean really...what the hell did she want?

"Well...i guess I don't want to know what he spent his night doing. Anyway, I was just worried, like I said. You seemed to get pretty drunk last night and I wanted to make sure you were ok. You don't seem too badly hung over." her face finally softened.

"Yeah well...it's an old family secret I guess." I was trying my hardest not to fidget.

"Your family has a secret for hangovers? When do they teach you this? And what's in it?" she laughed.

"If I told you I'd have to kill you." I let down my guard and tried making a joke, which completely backfired because with my guard went my hand that was covering up the bite mark on my neck and she saw it.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" she screeched.

"Oh come on now Elena...you know very well what that is." it was Damon!

I'm not sure if I was more shocked or angry at that moment, but I'm sure the look on my face said most of what I was feeling.

"I told you to stay up there and not make a sound!" I hissed.

"Yeah well the cat's out of the bag now." he walked down the stairs in nothing but a towel.

"You slept with Damon last night!?" her face was unlike anything i've seen before. Talk about if looks could kill!

"Listen, Elena. It's no big deal. We had a night, okay. Nothing to concern yourself with." I tried reasoning but it was no use. She was completely pissed off.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL!? YOU HAD SEX WITH HIM! AND YOU WERE DRUNK SO YOU COULDN'T EVEN SAY YES SO DAMON WHAT THE FUCK, YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF HER?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Did she really think I was that stupid? Did she think Damon was that big of an asshole?

"Are you kidding me?" I finally asked her.

"What do you mean? No I'm not kidding!"

"Vampire blood...sobers you right up." he smiled towards her, snapping his fingers.

"So...you slept with him? Willingly? I can't believe you!" she got in my face.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I had had enough. "So the fuck what if I had sex with Damon? What's it to you? Are you jealous, Elena? Jealous that you don't have both of them pining away for you? God forbid, right?"

"No that's not it! I can't believe you would even say that! I thought you were my friend! I thought you were loyal to all of us! But what would everyone think once they found out about this?" she sneered.

"I know your secret too, you know. You wanna snitch on me go right ahead. But be prepared to tell your boyfriend all about how when you were broken up for a mere few hours you went running right for his brother and fucked him. So you go ahead and tell everyone. Be my guest." I shoved her.

She still looked pissed but a slight look of panic crossed her face. She knew I was right, and she knew if she went ranting to Stefan about me sleeping with Damon he'd question why she even gave a shit.

"Fine. But don't come running to me when he drops you like he does with everyone else." she whispered and walked out the door.

I was so angry. Angrier than I had been in a very, VERY long time. My whole body was shaking and I finally knew what the meaning 'seeing red' meant. I hadn't meant for that to happen. I really thought Elena was one of my close friends, but her reaction sent me over the edge and I wasn't ready to come down just yet.

"Well..." Damon walked up towards me and put his hands on my shoulders "you really pissed her off, didn't you?"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Damon...I think you should go." I sighed, not knowing what else to do in this situation.

"What? Why? We were having so much fun." he smirked.

"Damon please. It's been a long few days, and I've just had a fight with my best friend. I need some time alone to just think." I told him.

"Yeah...sure. Okay." he seemed a little taken aback but went up and gathered his things and went back home.

What a mess. I really didn't want to fight with Elena, I can't believe either one of us said those things to each other and I felt like an asshole for saying what I said. Did she feel the same? I didn't want to call her and risk another argument so I just got dressed and made myself something to eat.

I finally checked my phone and saw a few missed calls. Some were from Elena from this morning and a few were from Jeremy. I was surprised he called me, seeing as it was the morning after his wedding night and all, but since he called a few times I figured I should call him back.

"Hey! She finally awakens!" he laughed as he answered the phone.

"Ha ha, very funny." I replied, though with a small smile on my face.

"Seriously, you were pretty wasted last night. Are you feeling ok this morning?" he asked me.

"Yeah actually I am, thanks. I can't believe you called me, shouldn't you be...you know...with your wife." I tried to not make it sound awkward.

"I was worried I just wanted to check on you." he responded.

"Well thanks Jer, I appreciate it." I told him.

"Hey...Elena called me a little while ago. Said you two got into some big fight, but she wouldn't tell me what it was about. Is everything okay?" he asked.

Damn it! How do I do this? What do I say?

"Yeah...it was something stupid, we both said things we probably shouldn't have. I think it'll just blow over in a day or two." I tried making myself believe it as I told him.

"Alright, well I hope you two don't stay mad at each other for very long. We've set up a brunch for everyone tomorrow to attend, to thank everyone for coming to the wedding and being there for us. Then we're off on the honeymoon."

"A brunch? You didn't mention anything about that to me." god that was the last thing I needed!

"Well it's kind of a surprise I guess." he replied.

"Jer I don't know. No offense, but those best woman duties took a lot out of me and I kind of wanted to just rest for a little while..." I was trying my best to get out of going.

"Come on Vi...I really want you there. You've done so much for me these past few months with the wedding, I really need you there." he was practically begging me. And of course I couldn't say no.

"Ok I'll be there...when and where?" I asked. Maybe someday I'd grow a backbone. Right now I just sucked it up and wrote down the info he gave me.

Brunch started around 10am the next morning at a nice bed and breakfast in the town that I had driven past before but never really paid attention to. I walked in and was feeling completely awkward. I hadn't spoken to anyone since yesterday and not only would it be awkward seeing Elena, but it would be weird seeing Damon too.

I must have been running later than I thought because when I got there almost everyone was already there. Jeremy and Bonnie both greeted me with big hugs and Caroline, Tyler, and Matt all did the same. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and for a few minutes I didn't even notice Elena in the corner with Stefan close by her side.

She looked at me for a minute and then walked over. Well...this was it. I hoped we didn't make too big of a scene at this thing.

"Violet. Hey...how are you?" she fidgeted a little.

"I'm good, Elena. How are you?" I responded.

"I'm good. Listen...I'm really sorry about yesterday. You're right...that was none of my business. I shouldn't have flipped out on you like that. I was just worried that Damon used you or hurt you. You're my friend and I don't want anything bad happening to you." a small smile crossed her lips and I could tell she really was sincere about the apology. Thought I still wasn't buying her reasons.

"I'm sorry too, Elena. I think we both said things we didn't mean. It was just a long few months for me with all of the wedding stuff happening...I just wanted one fun night, you know? Damon didn't hurt me, I promise. Trust me if he did he wouldn't be alive to tell the tale." I smiled back at her.

She pulled me in for a hug and it seemed to set us both at ease. Stefan walked over and gave me a hug. He didn't say anything, but I could tell that she spilled the secret to him about me and Damon. Fair enough I guess, it's not like he's going to go blab.

Things seemed to go well for a while and everyone was talking and having a good laugh, I didn't even notice Damon wasn't there until he walked in an hour late.

"Of course you have to make your entrance, Damon." Bonnie snipped as he walked into the room.

"It's not a party until I get here, Bon Bon." he winked at her and sat down.

Talk about awkward. I didn't know what to say or do, and all I kept thinking about every time I looked at him was our sex marathon just a few nights ago.

I stood up and walked over to the bar hoping to get a mimosa and calm my nerves. As I turned to walk back to the party, Damon was standing right behind me.

"Hey there sexy lady. You can't even say hello to me?" he smiled.

"Hello Damon." I said and took a sip of my drink.

He snaked around me and ordered a drink as well and as I began to walk back to the table he snuck up behind me whispering in my ear.

"You know...we can always finish what we started the other day. There's a bathroom upstairs that we could sneak up to and..."

I turned around cutting him off mid-sentence "That won't be happening Damon. Look...I enjoyed the other night, really. Thank you for...uhh, helping me forget things. But that won't be happening again." I told him.

"Why not?" he pouted.

"Because, Damon! It's already weird enough that it happened once!" I hissed.

"Well technically that was way more than once." he mumbled.

"I mean it...that's it! That one night. We're back to being friends now...or whatever strange relationship we had before."

"Right. You keep telling yourself that." he seemed a little annoyed but walked away from me and back to where everyone was sitting.

About an hour into the brunch I began to feel a headache coming on. I told everyone I was going to head home and hopefully feel better later on. Everyone wished me well and I got to my car without Elena, Jeremy, or Damon following me out and bothering me.

As I got home the headache began to turn into a pretty nasty migraine. I only had some over-the-counter stuff in the cabinet so I popped those and went upstairs to hopefully sleep it off a bit.

A few days after the brunch I headed down to the university to discuss which classes I would be taking that semester. Things got a little behind with all of the wedding planning so I wasn't able to get all of the classes I wanted, so I opted to just do part-time for this semester. It would do me good to not have so much of a workload on me and all of the stress that comes with it.

Jeremy and Bonnie were both taking the semester off to focus on "married life". I was happy for them but it would be so weird not having Jeremy there as my study buddy this semester. Although it might be a good thing in the long run, maybe I wouldn't have so many inappropriate thoughts about him if we weren't together all the time.

The following few weeks went by fairly quickly. Jeremy and Bonnie went on their honeymoon to the Dominican for 2 weeks, and it was right around the time classes started so I had something to keep my mind off of things. Elena and I had gone back to being friendly, but there was always some kind of awkward tension between us. We both tried to ignore it as best as we could and just continue to have fun being around each other.

Damon also listened to me and laid off. He'd make the occasional off-handed comment now and then, but he didn't pester me about that night we had. I had began to believe he finally realized what it was. Just one night to get our minds off of whatever was going on at the time.

Things seemed to be going well, and I was even able to start moving on from Jeremy. There was a guy in one of my classes, his name was Tim, and I thought he was cute and we would flirt and work on assignments together when we were able to. I thought finally I would be able to get over Jeremy and move on. I couldn't keep pining away for him forever.

The only thing that was nagging me were the damn migraines I kept having. They were becoming more frequent so I finally went to my doctor. He told me that they were probably stress-related from both school and dealing with the tragedy of my parents, and he prescribed me some pills to take when I felt the migraines coming on.

Fall turned into Winter and I couldn't believe how fast time was going. I had finally started feeling like myself again. Like the old me, before my parents died, before this whole thing with Jeremy happened. I was happy, I was having fun. Elena even wanted to have a get together for the holidays with everyone. Most of us didn't have any real family left(which was super depressing once I thought about it) so we all decided to spend the time with each other. I asked her if I could invite Tim, seeing as he and I had finally gone on a few dates. She seemed really excited and told me I absolutely had to bring him no question about it.

Of the few dates Tim and I went on, it never went too far. We would get hot and heavy with the make out sessions but one of us would end it at that. For a while I thought maybe I wasn't ready for that kind of relationship yet, but as the weeks went on I realized I was CLEARLY ready for it. He was REALLY cute. Tall, light brown hair, green eyes, and this deep voice I could listen to all day long. I even began imagining him whispering dirty things to me with that deep voice.

I decided that tonight was the night. After the party we'd go back to my place and hook up. I hadn't had sex since that night of the wedding with Damon and I was going a bit crazy.

I put on my sexiest dress and pair of heels and headed to the door when I heard the bell ring. I opened it up and saw Tim standing there, his mouth dropped open when he saw me.

"Wow...you look...wow!" was all he could say.

"Thanks! Wore this just for you." I winked at him as we walked to his car.

I could tell he was nervous as we drove to the party. He had only met Caroline once before while we were at the university library and I had talked endlessly about the rest of them, but I didn't want to introduce him just yet. He was talking quickly about how excited he was to meet my friends and how they must be great since I talk about them so much.

We arrived and he walked me up to the boarding house, complimenting me again on how I looked.

"Seriously you look amazing. Your legs are so long...how did I not notice that before?" he smiled.

"You look pretty good yourself." I commented, running my hand through his hair.

We were so involved with each other we almost didn't notice the door swinging open in front of us. Damon stood there staring, not saying a word. I couldn't get a read on his expression on his face, he looked perplexed.

"Damon, nice to see you. Can we come in?" I asked.

"Uhh...of course. Come on in! Welcome to the Salvatore holiday gathering." he moved so we could pass by and we walked into the great room.

The place looked beautiful all decorated for the holidays. I hadn't been here as much these past few months since I'd been busy with school and, well, Tim. The old rustic décor and the decorations were a beautiful contrast to each other, and a huge Christmas tree was off to the side.

"I'm so glad you guys are here!" Elena squealed as she ran into the room, her arms extended and practically knocking me over as she ran into my arms.

"Good to see you too, Elena." I laughed and returned the hug.

"I've been waiting for you guys to get here! I've been cooking all day and...holy wow!" she finally stopped babbling and looked me up and down "Geez if I weren't already taken I'd hit on you, girl! You look hot!" she took my arm and had me do a little twirl.

"Is this Tim?" she finally let go and asked.

"Oh yeah, sorry. Tim, Elena. Elena, Tim." I introduced them and they exchanged pleasantries.

"Tim come in the dining room. You have to meet everyone. Everyone is really excited to meet you." she took him by the hand and led him into the dining room where everyone else already was at. Why was I always the one that was late to these things?

I introduced Tim to everyone and they all greeted him and were friendly. We sat down and ate dinner, mostly laughing and having a good time. It felt great to finally not be the odd one without a date to these things. I noted Damon hadn't brought anyone which surprised me, he could usually at least compel someone to show up with him. But I didn't dwell on it. Tim was hitting it off really great with Stefan and Matt and even Tyler seemed to take a liking to him. Jeremy, on the other hand, seemed to grill him a bit. I warned Tim ahead of time that Jeremy was one of my best friends and might give him the third degree. He told me not to worry and that he could handle himself, but I still felt bad.

Dinner was over and Tim got himself up to excuse himself to the restroom.

"Down the hall, third door on your right." Stefan told him "And when you come back we'll all be in the great room for some drinks,Tim."

"Thanks man." he smiled "Be right back." he gave me a kiss on the cheek.

I sighed and sat back in my chair, beaming that I finally had someone that really seemed to care about me. It had been so long that I'd almost forgotten how it felt.

"Well Violet I have got to say, he is great. He really seems to like you, and he's hot!" Elena laughed.

"Well I don't like him." Jeremy interjected. I shot him a scowl.

"You don't like anyone, Jeremy." Bonnie tried to diffuse the tension.

"I don't like him, either." Damon agreed, the first time he'd said anything since dinner began.

"Well that's funny because I don't recall asking either of you your opinion on the matter!" I replied.

"Alright come on guys, let's go have some drinks and relax." Stefan got up and everyone else followed "Give the guy a break, will you two? He seems nice. And he's not used to us and is getting along just fine with everyone."

Everyone walked into the great room and Stefan turned on some holiday music to get us all in the mood. I walked over to pour myself a drink and as I turned around I was startled to see Damon standing right behind me.

"That is a very VERY sexy dress..." he moved closer "Tell me...did you wear that just for your boy toy tonight?" he snaked his hand around me and grabbed a bottle of something and poured it in his glass.

"As a matter of fact, I did. Thanks for noticing." I took a sip of my drink and refused to let him bother me.

"You wear stuff like this for him often? Looks more like something you'd wear in the bedroom than to a dinner with friends." he cocked an eyebrow.

"I...no. We haven't really …...done that yet." why did I tell him that!?

"What? You've gotta be kidding me!" he actually laughed at me.

"No Damon. Not everyone immediately sleeps with someone they might be interested in! Sometimes people wait for the right moment, you know." I felt so embarrassed for some reason and I couldn't figure out why. What the hell business was it of his, anyway? But then again I was the one who told him.

"Something's gotta be wrong with the guy, then." he took a swig from his glass.

"Thanks for your advice." I rolled my eyes.

He spun me so I was facing the middle of the room where everyone was at, and gestured towards the corner where Stefan and Matt were playing a game of pool.

"See...if it were me, I'd be trying to figure out a way to get all of these people out of here so I could bend you over that pool table in this dress and make you scream." he breathed into my ear, his body pressed up against the back of mine.

I tensed up, the image he just explained playing out in my head and I couldn't shake the fact that for a minute I really wanted that to happen. But damn it, I knew that wasn't going to happen. And I was pissed that he even went there, especially when I had a date with me!

"Ohh...that sounds like a good idea!" I turned around and smiled "You think you can go get everyone out of here and I can go get Tim and make that happen?"

He looked at me stunned and didn't say anything. It was the perfect moment for Tim to walk back into the room, smiling and heading back towards me.

"Hey babe, what's going on?" he asked, giving me a kiss.

"Nothing, just talking about you." I smiled and grabbed his hand as we walked towards Caroline and Bonnie who were sitting down talking to each other.

The next two hours actually went well. A little too well, for my liking. Damon seemed to suddenly warm up to Tim and they started acting like old pals. Old pals who apparently liked to drink. A lot. I knew Damon could handle his liquor but Tim wouldn't be able to. I tried convincing him not to drink much more, but I think the nerves from being around new people along with trying to impress me won out, and he didn't want to stop.

Finally Elena called it a night and everyone began trickling out the door. Jeremy and Bonnie agreed to give me a ride home, and of course Damon swooped in and agreed to drive Tim home.

"Don't you dare do anything to him." I whispered to him as we all walked out the door.

"Wouldn't dream of it, sweetheart." he winked at me as we all headed for our cars.

I was so angry at how the night ended. It started out so good, I was really REALLY hoping for some alone time with Tim tonight. I guess I couldn't really blame him, he really was trying to have a good time and impress everyone. I guess i'd just have to wait another day or two.

Jeremy stopped for gas before dropping me off at home so I got home a little later than I had initially expected.

I was fishing through my purse for my keys when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Sorry your boy toy couldn't keep up with me." it was Damon.

"Damon...not now." I sighed, not bothering to turn around.

"Hey...it's not my fault he was a light weight." he chuckled and I heard him walking up the porch steps.

"Damn it, Damon!" I yelled and turned around "You ruined my night!"

"I...I'm sorry. Hey...look I really didn't mean to make you this upset." his face went from a smirk to serious pretty fast.

"What did you think was going to happen, Damon? You got my date completely wasted and I couldn't even bring him back here! He probably won't even remember tonight!"

"Hey come on..." he gently held onto my arm "I swear I didn't do it on purpose. The guy just didn't want to stop. Probably nervous, you did look pretty hot tonight. I took him home, gave him some of my blood, don't worry he won't remember, he'll sleep it off and feel better tomorrow."

I hoped he was telling the truth. I really wanted things to go well with Tim and didn't want him to think that my friends just wanted to get him drunk and make fun.

"Well..." I eased up bit "thank you for bringing him home. My night is still ruined but I guess there's always tomorrow." I sighed.

"You really shouldn't let this dress go to waste though..." he walked closer towards me, still holding onto my arm.

"Damon come on..." I warned him, but he kept going and backed me up to the door.

"You're driving me crazy in this dress." he began to run his hands down the sides of my hips "We don't have to tell Tim, you know..." his lips got dangerously close to mine.

"Damon I don't think this is a good idea..." I managed to get out, but I didn't move from the spot I was in, starting to enjoy his hands on me and his lips being so close.

"We had fun last time...didn't we?" he asked, looking into my eyes.

"A lot of fun..." I whispered

His lips crashed into mine as his hands gripped my waist tightly. We kissed and fumbled for the door, continuing as he led me up the stairs. I was surprised that he didn't want to get right to it but I guess he had something else in mind.

He kicked my bedroom door open, still managing to kiss me and grope me where he could.

"We don't have a pool table here..." he breathed out, leading me towards the bed "So we'll have to improvise." he replied, shoving me onto the bed.

"On your hands and knees, gorgeous." his voice got deep.

I shivered from his words and the thought of what he was going to do and quickly turned around and got onto my hands and knees. I began to take my shoes off but his hand grabbed mine.

"Oh no...those stay on." his breath was on my neck.

I heard him behind me, clothes shuffling and then felt his hands slide up my thighs and onto my panties. He slid them down and took them off. I was already so turned on by this point and I was pretty sure he could sense it.

"Glad we didn't let this dress go to waste..." he groaned out as he pushed his member into my heat.

I moaned loudly as he entered me, stretching me slightly but the pressure was so good that I didn't mind the slight bit of pain that came with it. He felt so deep as he thrust into me that I couldn't help but keep moaning at every thrust. He was doing the same and I could tell he was having a hard time keeping control again.

He ran his hand up my back and grabbed a fistfull of my hair and gently tugged so that my back was flush against his chest, and he could see the reflection of us in the mirror I had in my room.

"Damn gorgeous..." he moaned into my ear "mind if I have a taste again?"

"Please..." I cried out, needing more from him and he knew I liked the bite.

He thrust in a few more times, then pushed my hair out of the way and sunk his teeth into my neck. The pressure from his thrusts was getting more intense and as he kept drinking he moved his hips and hit a certain spot that sent me wild. I let out a loud gasp and cried out his name, grabbing onto the headboard in front of me while still making sure I was flush against his chest. The position felt incredible! And I didn't want to move, I just wanted him to keep going.

"Oh my god!" I yelled out, trying to keep it together but I was beginning to shake from the pleasure and I needed a release soon.

"Fuck baby..." he grunted "you feel so damn good." his right hand left my hair and he brought it down to my clit. I thought he was going to give a few rubs and send me on my way, but he applied some light pressure at first, which had me bucking my hips back into him, then applied more pressure and moved his fingers up and down at a quick pace, earning a loud gasp from me at the new, intense feeling.

"You're about to cum for me aren't you?" he whispered in my ear.

"Yes!" I moaned loudly.

"Scream for me baby." he growled..

And at that moment I lost it, screaming his name out, shaking and trying to hold on to both him and the headboard so I didn't fall forward, my release spilling all over his cock. He couldn't hold on much longer either and came with a loud yell, gripping onto my hips tightly as he rode out his orgasm.

We both collapsed onto the bed, gasping for air and not saying much for a few moments.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to say no to me." Damon smirked.

"Goddamn it Damon..." I covered my face for a minute, taking in everything that just happened "That wasn't supposed to happen again!"

"Why not?" he sat up and looked at me. "Friends can have sex, it's no big deal."

"No they don't, Damon! You don't see me going and having sex with Elena or Caroline or Bonnie!" I replied.

"Well...no. But now that you've mentioned it...I wouldn't mind seeing that..." he retorted.

"Damon you know what I mean! We have to stop. We can't do this again." I got off the bed.

"That's what you said last time." he stayed put in bed.

"I mean it. Please leave, Damon." I asked him, starting to feel the twinge of a migraine coming on.

"Alright fine. I'll leave. But I doubt this was the last time..." he winked, getting off the bed and getting dressed.

Thankfully he didn't argue much longer and left quickly. I quickly made my way to the bathroom to get in my pajamas. I popped one of my migraine pills and headed back to bed. I began thinking of what to do about Tim, how I was going to tell him. Should I tell him? What was I thinking? Of course I should tell him. Or maybe it was best to just break things off. Obviously I couldn't have cared about him as much as I thought because I wouldn't have cheated on him if I did. I realized that I just liked the thought of someone being there...not anything else. I would have to break it off with him, it wasn't fair.

My thoughts quickly dissolved when I noticed that the migraine was still there. Usually the pills took effect by now, but this one was turning out to be a bad one. I turned off all the lights, but it still was pounding. I managed to make my way downstairs for an ice pack, and went back to my room and put it on my head. Still no use, and I wound up running for the bathroom to throw up. And that's where I stayed for most of the night, while the migraine lasted for hours and hours.


	17. Chapter 17

I decided to wait a few days before calling Tim. He hadn't called me and I had assumed that he was embarrassed about what happened the night of the party. But I sucked it up and called him and wound up breaking things off. I hated to do it, he seemed pretty bummed about it, but it definitely wasn't fair. I knew I didn't have the right feelings for him. Maybe a fling would have been better, but Tim didn't seem like that kind of guy.

Even though I knew I wasn't in love with him, the breakup still made me a little depressed. I was back to being the odd one out without someone yet again and it sucked. Between that and the cold weather I wound up not hanging out much for a little while with anyone. Also, the migraines were getting worse. I saw my doctor again at one point and he prescribed me something stronger and it seemed to help them again, but it never took them away fully.

Spring finally came and I was starting to feel a bit better about things. The warmer weather always put me in a good mood and I agreed to go to the lake with everyone to celebrate the beginning of the season.

It was great seeing everyone, but I still felt like the odd one out. Even Matt finally had a girlfriend, her name was Molly and she was short and blonde but really sweet. Damon even showed up with someone. Spitting image of Elena of course, I wasn't surprised in the least.

I tried pushing my insecurity aside and just tried to enjoy myself. Jeremy seemed to try the most to keep me in a good mood. Bonnie was there with him helping, and I was grateful. Her and I had become close over the past few months, she checked on me often and knew I had been in a bit of a depression. My feelings for Jeremy still hadn't gone away, but I was having a better time being happy for the two of them and wanting them to be happy together. At least someone deserved happiness.

A few weeks later were finals and I was so swamped that I barely had time to hang out with anyone much. I missed Jeremy terribly as well as our study sessions, but at this point I needed to focus and as it was it was already hard enough with Tim being in some of my classes. He was never mean or nasty towards me after our breakup, but things were clearly awkward.

During finals my migraines seemed to become even more frequent, if that was even possible, so my doctor had me on daily medication to manage them. He said that it was mostly likely more stress from finals that was causing them to be more frequent, and they were nothing to worry about. The daily medication should help. But damn was it annoying having to take a pill daily just to manage them.

When finals were over I decided to have a small gathering at my house to celebrate. I invited the usual suspects, even Damon. He had left me alone after our last time together and I was happy that he seemed to respect my decision. Of course he wanted to bring a date. The same girl he'd brought to the lake during spring, her name was Becky. She really was gorgeous and resembled Elena quite a bit. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised since he still seemed to have feelings for her. If anything I understood. If I could find someone that looked like Jeremy I'd probably do the same thing.

"I'm so happy this semester is finally over!" Elena sighed as she plopped down on the couch in my living room "this one was tough. I can't imagine what next semester is going to be like."

"Same here. I feel like I haven't even seen you guys in forever." I replied, sitting down next to her.

We began discussing what we were planning on doing the next semester when we suddenly heard raised voices in the next room. It was Jeremy and Bonnie fighting, though about what I couldn't quite tell.

"Geez, I hope everything is ok. Doesn't sound like a good fight." I said, a bit concerned.

"They've been like that for weeks now, I'm not sure what's going on." Elena looked at me.

"Really? But they seemed so happy just a few months ago." I mentioned.

"I'm sure it's nothing. Every couple has their arguments." Stefan replied as he sat down in a chair across from us.

We moved on from the discussion back to the topic of classes.

"I wish I had the knowledge you have, Stefan! That way I wouldn't be so damn nervous about all of these classes and passing everything." I told him.

"You're a smart girl. You both are" he nodded towards Elena "You guys will be just fine, I have no doubt."

"Aww thanks babe!" Elena smiled towards him.

We hardly had time to continue our conversation when we saw Bonnie storm out of the house without even saying a word.

"Oh man...this one seems bad." Caroline replied as she walked into the room.

"Did you hear what they were fighting about?" I asked.

"No not really. I walked in kind of in the middle of it. They were already full blown yelling by then. I've never seen either one of them like that." she leaned against the wall.

Jeremy walked into the room and we all were silent, not knowing what to say.

"Sorry about that guys." he couldn't even look anyone in the face "I hope we didn't ruin the party, Violet. It's just a small thing. She just needs some time to cool her head, you know?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about it, Jer." I went over and gave him a hug "Maybe she'll be back later."

"Yeah, maybe." he returned the hug but didn't sound convinced about her coming back.

The rest of the night was spent on a much lighter note, thankfully. We played some games and had some drinks and it seemed like everyone was having a good time. Even Damon seemed to be in good spirits and didn't make too many off-handed comments to anyone.

By the end of the night I felt a twinge of a migraine again, but brushed it off. With the new medication I only felt the beginnings of one, it never seemed to get full blown.

I had been talking with Jeremy about him starting up in the fall semester again when he suddenly stopped me and had a concerned look on his face.

"Hey...are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine, why?" I replied, a bit confused.

"You're bleeding..." he put his hand up under my nose where apparently I had begun bleeding from.

As soon as he said it, the heads of every vampire in the room snapped around towards me.

"Shit" Jeremy spat out "Okay...everyone out. Party's over!" he did his best to shuffle everyone towards the door, with Matt and Tyler helping out.

For the most part they all complied, though it was obvious that they smelled the blood and had a battle in them to either come forward and tear me apart or leave. I was thankful that they all seemed to be able to hold it together and head for the door without much complaint.

"Maybe I should stay..." Damon was the last one to head for the door and his face was a mix of clear desire and yet there was some concern painted on his face as well.

"I don't think so Damon, out." Jeremy responded loudly.

"Well she's suddenly bleeding from her nose I think maybe I should stay...that can't be good." he tried moving closer but Jeremy put his hand up and shoved him closer towards the door.

"I'm fine Damon, please just go." I told him, grabbing a tissue and using it to hold my nose.

He stood in the doorway lingering for another moment until Becky tugged him away and shut the door behind them.

"Thanks for that." I sighed as I sat on the couch.

"No problem." he sat in the chair across from me. He had a worried look on his face. "Does that happen to you often? The nosebleeds?"

"Oh these? Eh...I get them from time to time I guess. Damn dry air in this house doesn't help." I kept my head slightly tilted.

He reached over to hand me another tissue and took the blood soaked one away.

"And the migraines...you still getting those, too?" he asked.

"Well sort of but they're better managed now." I responded, but I still saw the look on his face "Look Jer...I promise I'm ok. I've been seeing the doctor and he's been checking...everything is fine."

"I know...I just worry about you is all." he sat back a bit in the chair, seeming to relax a little.

"I know you do. Look...I'm better already, it stopped, see?" I held up the kleenex to show him. "All better." I smiled at him.

For a few moments we sat there not saying anything to each other, just relaxing and enjoying being in each other's presence.

Jeremy's phone vibrated and he checked the text that had come in.

"I guess Bonnie is still angry with me. You think I could stay here for the night? I think we just need some time to cool off." he seemed sad.

"Sure no problem. Let's get ready for bed." I began walking up the stairs to the bedrooms.

"I-I can sleep on the couch, it's no big deal." he stayed on the chair.

"Nonsense. You're my best friend. You're coming upstairs and we will chat about this Bonnie stuff like girlfriends...or...well you know, our equivalent of girlfriends, anyway." I went over to the chair pulling him up and dragging him up the stairs.

We both got ready and hopped into bed. Jeremy hadn't obviously brought anything to sleep in so it was just his briefs. Thoughts flew into my head that I KNEW I shouldn't be thinking. I allowed them to linger for a minute before I reminded myself that he's a married man. A married man who is married to a VERY powerful witch that I did NOT want to piss off.

"So..." I began as we both got on the bed "What's been going on with you two? You seem to be fighting a lot, Jer. It's so unlike you guys."

"I know" he groaned and put his head in his hands, then looked back up "Violet I don't know! We argue over EVERYTHING and I just don't understand why. Sometimes I think...I mean I shouldn't even say it..." he trailed off.

"Jeremy...you can tell me anything, you know that." I reassured him. I really felt awful that they were having such a hard time. They were so in love and excited about the wedding stuff.

"I...I mean a lot of people, and I mean A LOT, told us that it wasn't a good idea to get married so young. They told us to wait. But we thought we could do it. That we were the ones who would make it. I thought so, too. But I guess we just didn't think everything through." his shoulders were slumped as he told me everything.

"Jeremy...you don't think it's that bad, do you? You guys will get through this. This has to be normal for people to go through when they get married young. I'm sure you guys will be ok." I put my hand on his shoulder.

"That's the thing...we don't really have anyone to compare to, do we?" he tried to smile but it was the saddest thing i'd seen in awhile.

"Jeremy you guys will be ok. I know it. I can tell. The way you look at her...and the way she looks at you. You guys will be fine." I told him.

"I hope you're right, Vi. I really do." he replied "Now I don't mean to cut this short...but i'm beat. You mind if we hit the hay?"

"No by all means. And don't hog the covers! I'll kick your ass!" I told him, only half joking.

"Okay fine." he laughed as we got under the covers and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning when I woke up I didn't realize right away that Jeremy had pulled me into him in the middle of the night and was holding on to me. I didn't want to say anything, secretly enjoying the feeling of him holding on to me, but knowing he most likely thought it was Bonnie in his half awake state. I tried moving back slightly to get closer to him when I felt is hardness through his briefs and on my back. I tried moving away as quickly as possible but it still must have woken him up.

"Good morning beautiful." he smiled and opened his eyes. I was waiting for him to suddenly realize that Bonnie wasn't there with him, but his face stayed the same.

"Good morning." I replied, sitting up and feeling slightly awkward. I had to think of something to say to break the tension before it got any more awkward.

"So...do you want to go get some breakfast? I know the Grill is open, I think we've got an in since we know half the people that work there!" I joked.

"Sounds great!" his smile got even wider as he sat up and began getting dressed.

I drove us to The Grill and we had small talk on the way there. We didn't bring up the fights between Bonnie and Jeremy or his worry about my migraines and nosebleeds. Nothing too awkward at least as the time passed.

We arrived and sat down and quickly ordered. We were both starving and ordered probably way too much food but didn't really care. Matt was there and although he didn't say anything I could tell that he was dying to ask why Jeremy was still wearing the same clothes from the night before and why we had just so happened to show up together.

Halfway through our meal Jeremy's phone rang. "It's Bonnie." he looked up at me.

"You should take it. Talk with her and see what is going on." I told him.

"You're right. I'm going to go outside and take it. I'll be right back." he told me as he got up and walked out of the restaurant.

I sat back in the booth enjoying my meal and stealing bits and pieces of Jeremy's meal as well. I was in my own little world of wondering what Jeremy and Bonnie were arguing about lately and what they had been talking about now that I didn't notice that there was only one person seated at the table across from me until I looked up to see if I could flag Matt down to get more water brought to the table.

As I glanced over I noticed the man sitting in the booth across from me was tall, blonde, and pretty gorgeous...and staring and smiling right at me. Normally I would be flattered but there was something about him that made me a little nervous at the same time. They say always trust your gut in these types of situations so I gave a small smile and then went back to my plate.

I made it a point to ignore him so well that I hadn't noticed that he pulled up a chair right next to the booth.

"Good morning, love..." he drawled on. Great...he had an English accent. One of my weaknesses.

"Good morning." I replied back to him, taking a sip of my coffee and trying to be polite.

"Looks like you could use some company since you're boyfriend decided to take off." he smiled. Again it was a mix of flattery and uneasiness that I was feeling.

"Oh." I replied as I put down the coffee cup "He's not my boyfriend. He's just a friend. And he just had to take a phone call, he'll be right back."

"Not a boyfriend, eh? Lucky for me then." he smirked.

"I'm sorry...i don't even know you're name and you're trying to hit on me." I shot at him.

"You're feisty! I like that. You are absolutely right! Where are my manners? My name is Klaus. Klaus Mikaelson." he responded while taking my hand in his hand and kissing it.

"And what would your name be, darling?" he asked.

"Violet." was all that I responded with, starting to feel anxious and wondering what the hell was taking Jeremy so long.

"Violet..." he repeated, then looked me dead in the eyes "wouldn't you love to come with me and get out of here?"

I'd seen this before, when Damon tried it and it didn't work.

"No, thank you. I'd rather wait for my friend." I told him, breaking the eye contact.

"Huh...interesting! Well...I can tell when I'm not wanted. It was nice meeting you Violet. I'm sure I'll see you around again." he shot a wink at me before he turned and walked out the door.

A cold feeling washed over me, and his words rang through my head over and over again "I'm sure I'll see you around again" it sounded more like a threat than anything else.

I must have been in my own little world, I didn't even notice Jeremy calling my name until he snapped his fingers in my face.

"Earth to Violet!" I finally heard his voice.

"Jeremy...sorry." I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the uneasy feeling I had.

"Everything okay?" he asked "You look kind of pale."

"Jeremy...do you know someone by the name of Klaus?" I asked, hoping the answer was a 'no'.

The look on his face said it all. He clearly knew who I was talking about.

"Where did you hear that name?" his tone was serious.

"Who is he?" I asked, not answering his question, wanting to figure out what was going on first.

"I'm going to ask you one more time before we get up and leave, where did you hear that name?" he asked again, scaring me a bit.

"Jeremy...he was just here a minute ago talking to me. Who is he?" my voice went quiet.

"We need to get to the boarding house. Now." was all he said before he pulled me out of the booth we were sitting in and into the car, the entire way searching around and looking to see if anyone followed us.

We peeled out of the parking lot and Jeremy sped the entire way back to the house, making only one short phone call to Stefan while on the way.

"Stefan. He's here. In Mystic Falls. We're on our way to you now." and that was the entire conversation between them.

"Jeremy! What is going on? Who is Klaus?" I tried asking but he wouldn't answer me. His only response was that I'd know what was happening once we got to the boarding house. I kept trying to get some answers out of him but it was no use. He wasn't telling me.

Finally we pulled into the boarding house and Jeremy practically hovered over me until we got inside.

"Are you sure it was him?" Stefan ushered us into the living room.

"How else would she know his name? You know a lot of guys named Klaus that hang around Mystic Falls?" Jeremy replied.

Stefan must have made some phone calls because everyone else was already there waiting for us. These guys don't screw around with this stuff apparently. There was, however, a new face that I hadn't seen before. He was a bit older than the rest of the group, and for a moment I felt uneasy since I didn't know who he was.

"Violet...this is my old friend, Alaric. He's here to help. He's a hunter like Jeremy." Stefan reassured me once he saw my gaze fixed on the man I didn't know.

"Nice to meet you Alaric." I nodded "Now does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on? Who's Klaus? I take it he's not good considering you're all here."

"No, he's not." Damon stood up from his chair "We were hoping he wouldn't have gotten word about you, but it looks like he's found out."

"That's great. BUT CAN YOU TELL ME WHO THE HELL HE IS!?" I was getting angry. No one was giving me details!

"Klaus Mikaelson. He's an Original." Stefan spoke up.

"An original what?" I was getting annoyed. Half sentences seemed to be all that anyone was capable of at the moment and that wasn't enough for me!

"An Original Vampire. One of the first of our kind. Almost impossible to kill." Stefan explained.

"Almost. But they can still be killed." Damon chimed in.

"Okay so...how do we kill him?" I asked, still rather annoyed.

"That's the 'almost impossible' part." Bonnie spoke up. "See...the Original vampires can only be killed by one thing. A stake made out of the wood from an old white Oak tree. And of course the last one burned down a few hundred years ago. All of the others have been killed. Klaus is the only one left. Rumors have spread about where to find the other stakes that have killed the rest of his family, but that's all they are. Rumors. No one really knows or has seen any."

"Well that's just fantastic." I scoffed and plopped down onto the closest piece of furniture.

"Let's not give up hope." Alaric replied "I've put out some feelers and I'm working on trying to locate one."

"Bonnie...can't you do a locater spell or something to find one?" Caroline asked.

"No it doesn't work like that. With a person you need some type of object that belonged to them or a part of them like hair. An inanimate object is even more tricky and there aren't exactly white Oak splinters lying around that I can use." Bonnie sighed.

"We'll find one. I know we will." Jeremy assured me.

"So what do we do in the meantime?" I asked, a little worried about what the answer would be.

"Well you could stay here and we could keep an eye..." Stefan began.

"Oh no. Not this again! I am TIRED of being the damsel in distress all the time!" I retorted.

"Well we can't very well leave you on your own! Look what happened last time!" Stefan's voice got louder.

"We will figure something else out. I am not a child who needs constant babysitting!" I was really getting angry.

"Violet..." Damon's hand lightly grabbed my arm and turned me towards him "I don't want to be a dick here, but I don't see another option. We can't just feed you to the wolves...no offense Tyler!"

"No I'm staying at my house. You can keep an eye on my place or whatever, but I'm tired of not being comfortable in my own home. You know what? You two are hunters, right?" I nodded towards Jeremy and Alaric "Well then teach me how to fight."

"Vi that's not going to fend off a 1,000 year old vampire!" Jeremy pleaded.

"I know that. I'll still accept your help, but I want to be able to do something besides just stand around and look like a moron!"

"It can't hurt." Alaric responded.

"Alaric you don't get much of a say here since you don't even know her!" Damon shot him a look.

"Listen...everyone calm down." Elena stood up. "I agree with Violet. Jeremy, Alaric...you two teach her how to fight. We'll have someone with her at her house and a few people outside her house while the rest of us go looking for him. What's the harm in teaching her."

I was so happy to have Elena on my side. Bonnie and Caroline both smiled as well and no one else made a comment.


	18. Chapter 18

For the next few weeks they took turns keeping an eye on my house, and I trained with Alaric and Jeremy. I trained day and night, even when they told me that I was done for the day, I still kept it up. I was sick and tired of being the typical damsel in distress. I may not be able to kill this Original but at least I could kick a little bit of ass while doing it.

Three weeks had passed and I was finally able to hold my own pretty well against Jeremy and Alaric and I was pretty damn proud of myself. We decided to test me out on an actual vampire though to see how well I could hold up. I thought for sure they would have gotten Stefan to do it, or at the very least Caroline. I was a little pissed off when I saw Damon walk in.

"Well well well...how's all the training going? Have you become Buffy yet?" he sauntered in.

"Really? You guys got Damon?" I scoffed.

"He was the only one that was willing to do it." Alaric replied.

"What? Why wouldn't Elena or Caroline or even Stefan volunteer?" I asked.

"Probably because they all know they'd go easy on you. I won't be making that mistake." he gave me a stern look.

"You're okay with this?" I looked at Jeremy.

"Not really, but we don't have another option that's somewhat safe." he responded

Damon didn't say anything, just stood there smiling. I have never wanted to punch someone in the face so badly as I did in that moment.

"Fine. Let's get this over with then." I replied...and then I did it. I punched him in the face.

"What the fuck?" he stumbled backwards, clearly surprised.

"Well I mean no other vampire is going to warn me they're about to attack are they? So I just went for..." I was cut off by him trying to swing back at me but I managed to dodge him.

I was quick on my feet and I managed a few more punches in at him, keeping an eye on the stake that was hidden nearby. He didn't know about it, we decided that it would be easier that way.

We went a few more rounds and then finally he put his hands up.

"This is ridiculous." he sighed, walking towards the front door.

"Where the hell are you going, Damon!? We had an agreement!" Jeremy began to follow him.

"There's no way she can take on an original vampire. This is stupid to even try." he was getting angry.

"You're just pissed that I was able to fend for myself!" I spat at him.

For a moment he didn't say a word. Then before I had a chance to do anything, he used his vampire speed to charge towards me and pin me down on the floor. Straddling me he held one hand on my throat. Wasn't enough to keep me from breathing but enough to keep me in place.

"What are you doing!?" I tried pushing him off of me but it was no use.

"You think he's going to go easy on you? Do you really think you stand a chance!?" he was growling at me and I was so stunned that for a few seconds I didn't do anything.

I saw Jeremy initially go after him but Alaric grabbed him and told him to back off for a minute. I guess he wanted me to prove that I could do it.

I finally made my move to grab the stake that was taped under the couch that I was lying next to, but Damon was too fast and knocked it out of my hand, his other hand coming up to pin my arm above my head.

"He's a lot faster and certainly a lot stronger than I am. You think that's gonna work on him sweetheart?" as he said the words his eyes grew darker and his fangs began to descend.

"He's going to do whatever he can to get a taste of you...so you damn well better do better than this!" he hissed, his fangs inching closer to my neck. I could hear Jeremy begin to protest behind me again, and I saw Alaric falter on holding him back. They were getting nervous...and so was I. I was beginning to panic. This wasn't the Damon I was used to. He was actually scaring me a bit.

Finally a light went off in my head and I knew what to do to get him off of me. I kicked him right in the balls, rolled the both of us so I was the one straddling him, and grabbed the stake and jammed that fucker in him! Of course I didn't go right for his heart, but it was close enough.

I stood up as he rolled to his side and groaned out in pain.

"Good thinking." Jeremy quickly walked over towards me.

Damon rolled onto his back, pulled the stake out, and then stood up.

"You got lucky." he looked annoyed but not nearly as scary as he did just a moment ago.

"And that's what I have to use to my advantage. I know i'm not as strong as you...or as strong as he is! But luck is all I have right now."

"Damon I think you should go. Thanks for the help, I'll call you later." Alaric ushered Damon towards the door.

Jeremy guided me towards the couch to sit down

"Are you okay?" he asked me, concern all over his face.

"Yeah I'm alright." I told him.

"You look a little freaked." he replied "That must have been scary for you, almost being bitten by a vampire."

I couldn't meet his gaze and only managed to mumble out a "Yeah it was" to him. I didn't want to admit that the reason I was freaked out was more because I actually liked the adrenaline rush and not because of the vampire bite thing. Granted he didn't know that I've been bitten before...many times...and by Damon. But he didn't need to know that. I'd just let him believe that that's what scared me.

Another week went by and I continued to train. Damon agreed to help out again but he didn't pull another stunt like he did last time. He didn't exactly go easy on me either and I was super sore after every training session because of it.

I was beginning to become discouraged at one point during the training and the three of them could tell.

"What gives? You're usually a lot more spunky than this." Damon asked.

"We don't even have that white oak stake." I sighed "I feel like all of this training is for nothing. If we don't have that stake then it's pointless, isn't it?"

"Bonnie is working on that." Jeremy told me.

"Yeah and how long has she been doing that? It's been almost a month, Jeremy! And we're lucky that he hasn't come for me at this point! How do we know she will even find the damn thing?" I was yelling.

"You need to have a bit more faith in me than that." Bonnie told me as she walked through my front door smiling.

I was expecting her and Jeremy to make some sort of sweet moment together but all that happened were a few quick glances between them. Things must still not be going so good. For a brief moment I felt bad because I hadn't even asked Jeremy how things were going. I had been so busy with training.

"What are you on about?" I asked her, intrigued by her behavior.

"You're gonna love me." she smiled as she pulled out a long piece of black cloth. She unwrapped it and there it was...a white oak stake!

"Where did you get that from?" I questioned, stunned but happy.

"I put some feelers out. Some elders helped me out in finding it." she replied.

"Bonnie! Thank you so much!" I gave her a huge hug.

"No problem!" she squeezed me tight. "I've also put a protection spell on your house. If anyone comes here and tries to harm you, they'll be thrown out of the house. Literally."

"Wow...that's pretty awesome. I didn't know you could do spells like that!" I was impressed!

"It's a new one I learned. Might come in handy for me, too." she glared at Damon.

"Don't worry your pretty little witchy head. I won't dare come knocking on your door and bugging you." he replied.

The stake was to stay with me at all times. Easier said than done so I had to make sure I carried some type of bag with me everywhere I went, which became annoying when I just wanted to head to the Grill or the coffee shop in town. But I didn't dare let it leave my side.

I decided to have another girls night, it had been way too long. All of the girls agreed to come over and it would be nice to have the extra protection of two vampires and a witch with me.

"Jeremy says you're doing really good with your training." Bonnie said as we all sat in the living room together.

"Yeah I think so." I replied.

"Says that Damon also tried to scare you the one time and your response was to kick him in the balls." she smiled.

"Now that is the best thing I've heard all week! How is it I didn't know about this until now?" Caroline laughed.

It was good to laugh and see them. Life was so busy all the time with all of the crap that had been going on that I had forgotten how nice it was just so be normal for a while and hang out with my girlfriends.

We watched movies and talked most of the night about anything and everything. I told them how scared I really was of Klaus and him possibly watching my every move. I was beginning to resent not letting those vampires kill me when they had the chance.

"Don't be stupid! You'll be fine. We're all here to help you!" Elena tried reassuring me.

Bonnie and Caroline both fell asleep first and left Elena and I awake and talking about how our semester was going. Not so great for either one of us with all of the other things on our minds but at least we still had passing grades.

She then got really quiet for a minute and looked down at her hands in her lap.

"I have to tell someone this." she almost whispered.

"What's going on? Is everything okay?" I asked.

'It's about Damon." she replied. NOT what I wanted to hear. I didn't want to discuss anymore about the guys tonight. Leave it to Elena to bring it up though.

"What about him?" I asked anyway. She clearly wanted to talk about whatever it was that was bothering her.

"We sort of..." she trailed off but I already knew what she was going to say.

"You slept with him again?" I was shocked "When did this happen?"

"A few weeks ago. Stefan and I got into another fight and I was stupid and went right to Damon again." she had tears in her eyes.

"I feel so stupid! I love Stefan! I don't know why I keep doing this! Please don't hate me!" she finally looked at me.

"Why would I hate you?" I asked her.

"Because! I bitched you out not long ago for sleeping with him and then I turn around and do the same damn thing! I'm a hypocrite!" she moaned.

"Elena look, I don't hate you." and it was true...though for some reason I was a little pissed off at her and it wasn't because of her yelling at me when I slept with him. I couldn't put my finger on why but I decided to just ignore it.

"People make mistakes. It happens. But Elena...you really need to talk to Stefan. I think he has a right to know." I took her hands in my hands to help calm her.

"You're right. I have to figure out how to tell him. I just …...i don't want him to leave me. I'm afraid if I do tell him that he'll just leave. And he would have every right to." she cried.

"Well...that's just something you'll have to deal with when it happens. He may very well do that, but it's the right thing to do." I told her.

"You're right." she sniffled "Thank you for listening. You're a great friend, Vi. I'm so glad you're here." she hugged me.

"We better get some sleep." she yawned.

"Yeah we should. Goodnight." I said before drifting off to sleep.


	19. Chapter 19

Another two weeks went by and I still hadn't heard or seen anything from Klaus and I was beginning to think that maybe...just maybe he had forgotten about me. Until there was a knock at my door and a delivery guy holding flowers for me.

"Violet Peyton?" he asked.

"Yes..." I was confused. Who would be sending me flowers?

"These are for you! Enjoy!" he smiled and handed me the flowers, then quickly walked away.

I was perplexed and walked through the hallway holding the boquet and I searched for a card on the way to the kitchen. Who would send me flowers? Certainly none of the guys I knew. None of them were really the flower-giving type.

I found the card and my blood ran cold.

 _"Violet,_

 _Don't think I forgot about you, love._  
 _I'm just waiting for the right moment._

 _Yours truly,_  
 _Klaus"_

The flowers fell from my hands and I stood still, panicked and not sure what to do. A little part of me did hope that he somehow forgot. It had been weeks since I saw him and he hadn't made one move. Deep down I knew he wouldn't forget but I still had hoped. But it was to no avail.

I phoned Jeremy right away to tell him what happened. He couldn't get to my house right away, he was at the college, but he said he'd send someone to come over and pick me up and then take me to the boarding house.

While I waited I made sure I locked every door and window and I closed all of the curtains. I had hoped that between that and Bonnie's spell that it would keep me safe. I paced and paced, thinking of what to do. Why this kept happening. I was so tired of all of this crap. I really wished I never moved here, or that when my parents died I had moved back home. But then again this very well may have followed me there and I wouldn't have the people I have in my life now, who have saved my life more times than I probably even know about.

I was jarred from my thoughts by my doorbell ringing. I jumped and hesitated walking towards the door for a moment. Would Klaus ring my doorbell?

It rang again and then a knock came afterwards, followed by a familiar voice.

"Violet? Are you in there?" it was Damon. Jeremy sent Damon. Of all the people to send...he was going to get a piece of my mind later!

I opened the door and I knew the look on my face could tell exactly how I was feeling.

"Not who you were expecting?" he joked.

"Jeremy sent you?" I asked.

"Well no, he actually asked Stefan. But he was of course busy with Elena so he asked me." he responded, stepping into the doorway and sneaking past me.

"So what did the note say?" he asked.

"He's waiting for the 'right moment'." I told him.

"That's it?" he cocked and eyebrow.

"That's it. So you can leave now. I'll just wait for Jeremy to get back." I was being short with him on purpose. I was still pissed off at him for what happened a few weeks ago.

"Yeah that's gonna happen." he mumbled as he began walking towards the kitchen. He picked up the flowers that had fallen on the floor and threw them in the trash as he immediately went for the vodka sitting on the counter.

"Seriously Damon. I don't want you here. At least not with me, alone." my arms crossed and I stood still.

"Afraid you won't be able to keep your hands off of me again?" he smirked.

"No. I'm afraid you'll attack me again." I figured it was best to be honest.

"Attack you? What are you—wait...you think I was really going to hurt you?" he set his drink down and moved forward.

"I don't know what the hell you were thinking at that time, Damon!" I took a few steps back.

"I wouldn't...why would you think that?" the look on his face was the most serious I think I had ever seen him.

"Damon! You were there! You know exactly what you did!" my voice began to raise.

"I only did that to get you to think! No offense, but you don't exactly have strength on your side when it comes to dealing with someone like Klaus! You're a smart girl, I knew you'd figure out another way of dealing with that situation...i just didn't think it would involve you kicking me in the nuts."

"Yeah right!" I exclaimed.

"If I really wanted to hurt you, that spell that Bonnie put on your house would have put me on my ass!" it was his turn to raise his voice.

He had me there. I hadn't thought about that at the time.

"Besides..." his face relaxed and he sauntered over towards me, backing me into the wall "There are much better things I'd rather do to you while you're lying on your back." he practically growled as he placed his hands on either side of me.

"Get off me." I shoved him backwards and got away from him.

He chuckled and threw his hands up in the air.

"Okay okay...mercy, okay? I won't try anything."

"This is serious, Damon. He sent me those flowers, he's going to find me. God, I'm so sick of this! I'm so sick of always worrying about someone coming after me! About my friends getting hurt because of me! Some days I honestly wish I would have just died the night my parents died. None of this would be happening!" I couldn't help the words from coming out of my mouth. I had needed to say them outloud to someone for a while now. I really was just tired of everything that had been going on.

Damon's face changed and this time he looked concerned.

"Hey...look. It's going to be okay. Things will get better. We'll off Klaus and then you can get back to your normal life. Err...well, as normal as your life can get."

"My life will never be 'normal', Damon! Someone else will just come for me after this. It's never going to stop." I could feel the beginnings of a migraine coming on again. The stress of everything was weighing me down.

"Well then we will just fight the next person, and the next person after that. It's not like we're going to give up on yo—Violet..." he cut himself off.

"What?"

"Your nose..." he stood still and just stared at me.

"Shit." I sighed and ran to grab a tissue and lie down on the couch.

For a moment Damon still stood in his spot. It was obvious he was battling himself, he could smell the blood and I knew that he wanted another taste but it was taking everything in him not to try anything.

"Has that been happening more frequently?" he finally asked, moving only about an inch closer.

"I guess?"

"Maybe you should get that checked out."

"I have already talked to my doctors about it. They say it's all just probably stress. Can you please go in the kitchen and get me one of my migraine pills? I need to catch this before it gets bad." I felt bad asking him but I didn't want to move just yet.

He walked to the kitchen and came back with the medicine without protest and handed it to me along with a glass of water. The nosebleed still hadn't stopped, which was unusual but I disregarded it and swallowed the pill and went back to lying down with my head tilted back.

"Maybe you should get a second opinion," he sat down on the floor next to where my head was on the couch.

"You suddenly care now?" I asked.

"I just think headaches and nosebleeds aren't something to mess around with."

I was about to reply with some sort of smart remark when the doorbell rang. Damon stood up and walked over and looked out the peep hole.

"Son of a bitch..." he muttered.

"What's wrong? Is it Jeremy? Is he finally here?" I sat up, the nosebleed finally subsiding and the headache not getting worse but still lingering a bit.

"No it's not. Stay there."

"Oh come on!" a voice from the other side of the door yelled "I know you're in there. Besides the fact that your car is in the driveway...i could smell you on my way up the door, love."

"Damon...is that..." I began to shake.

"Yeah it's Klaus. Guess he thinks this is the perfect time."


	20. Chapter 20

"Don't open the door!" I whispered to him.

"Do you think I was born yesterday? Of course I'm not going to open the door!" he whispered back at me while pulling his phone out of his pocket.

He began to dial a number when the door suddenly burst open. Klaus had kicked his way in.

"Well well well...I see I'm not the only vampire who's gotten your attention." he smiled as he stepped into the hallway. "Nice to see you again Damon."

"Klaus it's been forever. We really should catch up! Now get the hell out." he moved closer towards him.

"How did...you weren't invited in!" I managed to blurt out.

"Yes, very observant. I've got my own witch friends, too. And by the way...the little protection spell that's been put on this house has been broken, too. But that was a nice try." he began walking towards me.

Damon tried coming up behind him and hitting him over the head but Klaus was faster. He spun around and grabbed Damon by the throat and shoved him against the wall.

"Now...be a good boy and go back home. This little lady and I have some business to attend to."

As Klaus spoke the words Damon's face went blank and he turned walked out the door. What the hell!?

"Wait...Damon! Damon where are you going!?" I was yelling after him, heading for the door. Klaus grabbed me by the arm and steered me back towards the living room.

"Now listen. Once he leaves in his car, we're going. You're not going to make a sound and you're going to cooperate." he stared into my eyes.

"Like hell I am!" I tried as best as I could to break his grasp on me.

"So it's true. The compulsion doesn't work on you. Interesting! I can compel humans and even other vampires...but I can't compel you." he was clearly amused.

He must have seen the look of shock on my face as he said it.

"Ahh yes...that's how I got your little friend to leave. It comes in handy." he smirked.

"Now...come with me. We're leaving."

I fought and fought as best as I could, kicking and screaming the entire way out the door and down the stairs, surprising even myself for being able to get in a few good punches and kicks. All it did for him was make him laugh, unfortunately.

He tied my hands together quickly and threw me in the back seat of the car. I kept screaming but it seemed that no one was coming to help.

"I've managed to compel all of your neighbors to stay in their houses and ignore any noises they hear for the next few moments. So you can keep screaming all you want. Though I do wish you'd shut up before I make you." he turned to look at me and I knew he was serious.

"Now...lay down and don't say a word." he told me.

"Why?" I gritted my teeth as I spoke.

"Either you lie down or I blindfold you. It's your choice." he gave an evil grin.

"Fine." I huffed out and laid down on the back seat.

I didn't have a watch on so I didn't know how long we drove, but I knew it was a while. I tried to see if I could figure out where we were going just by the trees passing by but it was no use. Everything looked the same. All I could tell is when we'd turn onto a busy road versus an emptier one.

After what seemed like a few hours I finally felt the car pull over and we came to a stop.

"Now...unfortunately it's too long of a drive to get where I want to go today. I need rest, and so do you." he came around to the car and pulled me out, my hands still bound together.

"I think this place will do just fine for now." he smiled as he pushed me towards the motel in front of us.

"Maybe you could untie my hands." I asked him. I thought maybe if I could get the damn rags he used off then I'd be able to somehow make a run for it. But try as hard as I could I couldn't get them off myself. All I did was manage to make them even more painful than they were when he first put them on me from pulling so hard. "Someone is going to notice anyway. You think they'll just let you have a room with a girl who you've got tied up?"

"That's exactly what I think is going to happen." he replied as he pushed the door open.

"Hello there can I help y-" a young man stood at the counter. He initially had a smile on his face but once he took one look at us his face quickly fell and he began to reach for the phone.

"I don't think that's necessary." Klaus grabbed the man's arm. "We just need a room for the night, my girlfriend here and I." he told him looking into his eyes.

The man's face went slack and he nodded "Sure...room 17 is available. It's our honeymoon suite, you two will like it."

"Ah, that's wonderful! Thanks so much." Klaus let go of the man and grabbed the key, pushing me out the door and down towards the room that had the number 17 on the door.

When he opened it the room itself wasn't horrible. It didn't look dirty and dingy like most motels look but it did look pretty cheesy. The room was white and light pink everywhere. A tall glass shower and a hot tub were off to the side, and a large king size bed was in the middle with a flat screen TV facing the direction of the bed.

"Well this is nice, isn't it?" he guided me into the room. I kept silent, not knowing what to say or what to do. I scanned the room and saw the phone sitting next to the bed and wondered how I would be able to get to it while he wasn't around.

"Can I use the bathroom?" I asked him "It was a long drive."

He stared at me for a moment, probably weighing his options. But it's not like he had much of a choice. I almost thought he was going to tell me he would come with me and make sure I didn't do anything stupid.

"Yes fine. Go ahead." he replied.

"Kind of hard to do with these things wrapped around my hands." I held them out in front of me.

He took another moment to ponder and then finally began taking the material off of my wrists.

"Fine." he told me but then grabbed my arm and pulled me up against him "But don't you dare pull anything stupid."

"I won't." I whispered.

I quickly walked to the bathroom and shut the door behind me. Since the shower was out in the room all the bathroom had was a decent sized sink and a toilet. And a small glass block window. Shit. There was no way out even if I tried!

I used the bathroom and washed my hands quickly and then I sank down on the floor, my back against the door. How was I going to get out of here? What was I going to do?

A knock at the door pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Don't make me come in there and get you."

I stood up and opened the door and walked into the room, not knowing where to really go. I walked over to the bed and sat down, feeling his gaze on me the entire time.

"So now what?" I asked, afraid to look in his direction.

"Well...now I eat. I'm hungry..." he walked towards me "and you already smell delicious."

"Please don't." I pleaded.

"Listen..." he sat down next to me "I won't hurt you. You give me what I want, and you can live like a queen. You'll travel and go places you've never even dreamed about. You'll have the best of everything...food...clothes...jewelry. Just give me what I want and nothing bad will happen."

Granted under normal circumstances a man telling you he'll spoil you and take you places and buy you things would sound amazing. But not so much in this situation. In this situation I was scared out of my mind and didn't know how I was going to get out of this. I had no phone and he was so much stronger than I was.

I didn't say anything, I just kept my eyes averted to the bed that we were both sitting on.

"Love..." he whispered, putting his hand under my chin and lifting my head "It's going to happen regardless. So you might as well enjoy the perks."

The "perks"? What perks? Of being a human blood bag and slave to someone? No money in the world could ever make that okay! I wanted to scream all of this at him. But I knew it would get us nowhere. And within seconds he was already latched onto my neck drinking from me.

It hurt this time. Not like the other times with Damon. That never felt like this. That was a little pain mixed with pleasure. This was just pain shooting through me and I tried my best not to let out much more than a few whimpers. He drank for a long period and I began to feel woozy, unable to keep myself upright and I fell back onto the bed...Klaus still attached to my neck.

"Klaus please stop...stop it..." I barely was able to force the words out of my mouth. My world was becoming fuzzy and a bit dim. I started to panic, thinking he would kill me and I tried pushing and shoving and again telling him to stop.

He finally pulled away, panting and gasping for breath, his pupils blown wide.

"It's true!" he gasped out "What is it that makes you taste so amazing?"

I wanted to have a witty comeback but I was too out of it. I stayed on the bed and managed to curl myself into a ball.

I heard a phone ring and listened in on the conversation that happened. Something about finding me, taking me, and he told them where we were and to get here as soon as they could. He hung up and then looked over towards me.

"Here...drink. You'll feel better." he sat on the bed next to me, making a small cut into his arm.

"No." I groaned out, too exhausted to say anything else.

"I promise you'll feel better." he whispered.

For a minute I didn't move, I was teetering on the brink of passing out but I was too afraid of what would happen if I did. Would he feed off of me again? Enough to kill me? Finally I grabbed his arm and drank.

When he pulled his arm away I bolted upright. I'd tasted vampire blood before obviously...but nothing like this. It wasn't the taste...it was the feeling that I had. I was...happy? Elated? It was weird and there was a part of me that didn't like it but at the moment the other part of me that liked it was winning out.

"Now I'll order you some room service. What do you like?" he smiled.

"Ohh...do they have steak?" I asked with a smile on my face.

"Well if they don't I'll find a way to get it here." he smiled back

He picked up the phone and dialed 0 for the main lobby area. Not many motels had room service, most of them were just for travelers or sex, but this one seemed pretty nice. I wondered if he had chosen this one on purpose.

"Yeah...hey Violet? How do you like your steak?" he asked me while speaking to the person on the other line.

"Rare." I told him.

"...that's my girl." he gave a wicked grin.


End file.
